i  .].gk,gj=  Caleb  Bingham 


J  HE  MISSOURI  ARTIST 


II 


\ 


V 


Kansas  City  Public  Library 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM 
Painted  by  Himself 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM 

THE  MISSOURI  ARTIST 


BY 

FERN  HELEN  RUSK,  Ph.  D. 

Assistant  in  Classical  Archaeology  and  the  History 
of  Art  in  the  University  of  Missouri 


THE  HUGH  STEPHENS  CO. 
Jefferson  City,  Mo. 


1917 


Edition  Limited  to  500. 


This  Volume  is  No. 


Copyright,  1917 
By  FERN  HELEN  RUSK. 


4 


TO 

JOHN  PICKARD 

"Missouri's  Apostle  of  the  Beautiful" 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/georgecaIebbinghOOrusk 


PREFACE 


Attracted  by  the  artists  of  the  periods  of  great  art  activity, 
we  are  Hkely  to  forget  those  who  have  kept  the  light  burning 
when  conditions  have  been  most  unfavorable.  The  wonder 
is  often  expressed  concerning  Bingham  that  he  turned  to 
art  at  all  in  his  pioneer  country,  where  thought  was  only  for 
the  necessities  of  life.  And  yet  he  made  it  his  life  work. 
True,  his  virility,  positive  convictions  and  lively  interest 
led  him  into  politics  again  and  again,  only  to  return,  however, 
with  renewed  interest  to  his  profession.  Bingham,  I  am 
convinced,  was  more  successful  in  his  line  of  work,  the  de- 
lineation of  contemporary  life,  than  was  any  other  American 
artist  of  his  time.  For  this  reason  I  have  undertaken  this 
study  in  an  endeavor  to  bring  together  the  facts  of  his  life 
while  they  are  still  available,  and,  by  setting  forth  the  char- 
acter of  his  work,  to  make  an  estimate  of  his  place  in  Amer- 
ican art. 

Only  brief  articles  on  Bingham  have  previously  been 
published,  so  my  information  has  been  obtained  almost 
entirely  from  primary  sources,  from  original  documents  and 
newspapers,  from  contemporary  friends  of  the  artist,  and  from 
my  own  study  of  his  paintings. 

The  content  of  this  book,  in  a  less  complete  form  than 
it  is  here  presented,  was  submitted  in  1914  in  partial  fulfill- 
ment of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts 
in  the  Graduate  School  of  the  University  of  Missouri.  Its 
publication  at  this  time  seems  justified  by  the  approaching 
celebration  of  the  Missouri  Centennial.    At  a  time  when  we 


(1) 


2 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


would  make  special  effort  to  do  honor  to  the  pioneers  in 
every  phase  of  activity  that  has  helped  toward  the  develop- 
ment of  our  state,  Bingham  is  one  of  the  characters  who 
stand  out  most  prominently.  He  attracts  our  attention 
not  only  on  account  of  his  characteristic  pictorial  representa- 
tions of  Missouri  life,  but  also  because  of  his  prominent 
public  life  and  service  that  were  of  such  usefulness  and  in- 
tegrity that  they  may  justly  be  looked  upon  with  pride  by 
citizens  of  Missouri  as  sources  of  inspiration  and  noble  ex- 
ample. 

It  is  with  pleasure  that  I  acknowledge  my  indebtedness 
to  Dr.  John  Pickard  for  his  advice  and  criticism  in  the  work; 
to  Dr.  John  Shapley  for  his  assistance  in  collecting  and  organ- 
izing material;  to  Miss  May  Simonds  for  the  valuable  help 
she  was  able  to  give  from  her  long  study  of  the  artist  and  for 
the  use  of  letters  and  data  which  she  had  obtained  in  prepara- 
tion for  her  proposed  monograph;  and  to  my  sister,  Mrs. 
Zay  Rusk  SuUens,  for  her  very  helpful  criticism  of  the  liter- 
ary style  of  the  work.  I  have  also  to  thank  Mrs.  Louise 
J.  Bingham  Neff,  Miss  Laura  Rollins  King,  Mrs.  Arthur  J. 
Walter  and  Mr.  W.  E.  Thomas  for  the  use  of  letters  and  other 
information,  and  Mr.  N.  T.  Gentry,  Miss  Eva  Johnston 
and  Judge  James  M.  Gibson  for  the  use  of  several  cuts  and 
photographs.  And  finally,  I  would  acknowledge  the  assist- 
ance of  many  friends  and  relatives  of  the  artist  who  have 
contributed  in  various  ways,  directing  me  to  paintings  and 
giving  valuable  information  which  I  could  have  obtained  from 
no  other  source.  Among  these  I  wish  to  express  my  special 
gratitude  to  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins  and  Col.  R.  B.  Price,  who 
have  most  cordially  given  much  information  from  their 
personal  knowledge  of  General  Bingham  and  have  continually 
encouraged  me  in  the  preparation  of  this  monograph. 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 
I — Family  and  Early  Life  (1811-30). 

Autobiographical  sketch   7 

Emigration  to  Franklin,  Missouri   11 

First  attempts  at  art   13 

First  meeting  with  Harding   14 

Death  of  father   15 

Removal  of  family  to  Arrow  Rock   15 

Life  in  Boonville  as  cabinet  maker's  apprentice   16 

Student  of  law  and  theology   17 

Taught  by  Harding   17 

II— First  Work  in  Painting  (1830-37). 

First  serious  portrait  work   18 

In  St.  Louis   20 

First  marriage   22 

Portrait  painting  in  Columbia   23 

III—  In  Philadelphia  and  Washington,  D.  C.  (1837-44). 

In  Philadelphia   25 

At  Rocheport  convention   26 

Portrait  of  his  wife   28 

Portrait  work  in  Washington,  D.  C   29 

IV —  Genre  Painting  and  Political  Activity  (1844-56). 

First  genre  paintings   32 

Elected  to  the  State  Legislature   37 

Seat  in  the  Legislature  contested  and  lost   38 

Painting  In  a  Quandary  and  other  genre  works   41 

Re-elected  to  the  Legislature   44 

In  New  York   46 

Wife's  death   49 

Second  marriage   49 

Paintings  of  Shooting  for  the  Beef  and  Emigration  of  Daniel 

Boone   49 

Paintings  of  the  "election  series"   53 

Painting  of  Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware   64 

V—Dusseldorf  Period  (1856-60). 

Life  in  Europe   65 

Commission  from  the  Missouri  Legislature   66 

Painting  of  Jolly  Flatboatmen  No.  2   68 

Return  to  the  States   69 

Other  commissions   70 

(3) 


4 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 

Return  to  Europe   72 

Portrait  of  Baron  von  Humboldt   72 

Return  to  the  States   73 

Portraits  painted  soon  after  his  return   73 

Allegorical  painting   75 

VI — Civil  War  Period  (1860-66). 

Service  in  the  Union  Army   76 

Views  concerning  the  war   77 

Painting  to  celebrate  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson   78 

Service  as  State  Treasurer   78 

Opposition  to  Jennison   79 

Painting  of  Order  No.  11   82 

Painting  of  Major  Dean  in  Jail   87 

VII — Later  Work  in  Painting  and  Politics  (1866-79). 

Candidate  for  Congressional  nomination   88 

Residence  in  Independence   88 

Commission  from  the  Legislature   89 

Portraits  of  his  son  and  others  ,  90 

Removal  to  Kansas  City   91 

Charles  P.  Stewart,  a  pupil   91 

Friendship  with  Major  Rollins   92 

Portraits  of  Major  Rollins  and  others   93 

Sketches  made  in  Major  Rollins'  home   95 

Landscape  paintings   95 

Painting  of  Puzzled  Witness   97 

President  of  the  Kansas  City  Board  of  Police  Commissioners. .  .  97 

Candidate  for  Congressional  nomination   98 

Service  as  Adjutant-General   98 

Death  of  second  wife   101 

A  characteristic  debate   102 

Professor  of  Art  in  the  University  of  Missouri   102 

Third  marriage   104 

Commissioner  for  the  Robert  E.  Lee  monument   105 

Paintings  in  his  studio  the  year  of  his  death   105 

Portrait  of  himself   106 

Death   106 

Administrator's  sale  of  his  paintings   107 

VIII — Conclusion — Estimate  of  Bingham's  Work. 

The  three  periods  of  his  artistic  career   109 

His  views  concerning  art   Ill 

His  position  among  American  artists  of  his  time   115 

Appendix — 

Chronological  list  of  Bingham's  paintings   118 

Chronological  register  of  Bingham's  life     129 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 

Portrait  of  Bingham,  by  himself  Frontispiece 

Portrait  of  Judge  David  Todd   16 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  Wm.  Johnston   17 

Portrait  of  Judge  Warren  Woodson   18 

Portrait  of  Hon.  Josiah  Wilson   19 

Portrait  of  Bingham,  by  himself   20 

Portrait  of  Dr.  Anthony  W.  Rollins   20 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  Anthony  W,  Rollins   21 

Portrait  of  Josiah  Lamme   22 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  Josiah  Lamme  and  Son   23 

Portrait  of  Roger  North  Todd   24 

Portrait  of  Gen.  Richard  Gentry   24 

Portrait  of  Thomas  Miller   25 

Sketches  26,27 

Portrait  of  John  Quincy  Adams   28 

Portrait  of  John  Howard  Payne   29 

Jolly  Flatboatmen  (Painting)   34 

Jolly  Flatboatmen  (Engraving)   36 

Sketches  used  in  Jolly  Flatboatmen   37 

Raftsmen  Playing  Cards   40 

In  a  Quandary   41 

Sketches  used  in  Raftsmen  Playing  Cards   42 

Portrait  of  Dr.  Oscar  F.  Potter   43 

Emigration  of  Daniel  Boone  (Painting)   52 

Emigration  of  Daniel  Boone  (Engraving  and  Sketch)   53 

Canvassing  for  a  Vote   54 

County  Election   55 

Sketches  used  in  County  Election  56,57 

Stump  Speaking   60 

Sketches  used  in  Stump  Speaking   61 

Verdict  of  the  People  (Engraving)   62 

Verdict  of  the  People  (Painting)   64 

Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware   65 

Portrait  of  Elijah  S.  Stephens   70 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  Elijah  S.  Stephens   71 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  R.  L.  Todd  and  Daughter   72 

Portrait  of  Dr.  Edwin  Price   73 

Portrait  of  Col.  R.  B.  Price   74 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  R.  B.  Price   75 

Gen.  Lyon  and  Gen.  Blair  Starting  for  Camp  Jackson   78 

Order  No.  11   84 

Major  Dean  in  Jail   85 

(5) 


6 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 


Portrait  of  Rollins  Bingham   90 

Portrait  of  Major  James  S.  Rollins   92 

Portrait  of  Major  James  S.  Rollins   93 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  James  S.  Rollins   94 

Portrait  of  Miss  Sallie  Rodes  Rollins   95 

Pike's  Peak   96 

Puzzled  Witness   97 


CHAPTER  1. 


FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE  (1811-30). 

The  "Missouri  Artist,"  George  Caleb  Bingham,  was 
not  a  native  of  the  state  which  claims  him.  He  was  born 
March  20,  1811,  in  Augusta  County,  Virginia,  on  a  large  plan- 
tation of  eleven  hundred  and  eighty  acres  on  South  River. 
The  farm  included  the  famous  Wier's  Cave,  known  also  as 
Hannah's  Cave,  Madison's  Cave  and  Amend's  Cave,  from 
the  names  of  persons  owing  it  at  various  times. ^  His  father, 
Henry  Vest  Bingham,  was  of  Scotch  parentage,  and  his 
mother,  Mary  Amend,  was  of  German  descent,  with  perhaps 
a  French  strain,  if  we  may  judge  by  her  mother's  maiden 
name,  which  was  Bushon.  Both  were  of  honorable  character, 
and  the  mother,  particularly,  was  very  intelligent.^ 

Very  little  is  known  of  Bingham's  ancestry  and  the  condi- 
tions surrounding  his  early  life.  A  short  sketch,  evidently 
the  beginning  of  an  autobiography  which  he  intended  to  write, 
gives  more  information  than  can  be  obtained  from  any  other 
source.  The  manuscript,  still  in  existence  in  1902,  was  hastily 
written  in  pencil  without  any  corrections,  and  it  is  valuable, 
not  only  as  a  source  of  historical  facts,  but  also  as  an  illus- 
tration of  Bingham's  clear  and  charming  style  as  a  writer. 

"I  have  no  knowledge  of  my  ancestry  beyond  my  maternal 
and  paternal  grandfathers.  The  former  was  born  of  German 
parentage  near  the  city  of  Little  York  in  the  state  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. His  name  was  Matthias  Amend.  He  was  by  trade  a 
millwright  and  a  most  excellent  workman  in  his  line.  Before 

^Abstracts  from  Records  of  Augusta  County,  Virginia. 
«NeflP,  Mrs.  Louise  J.  Bingham.  Unpublished  Sketch  of  Bingham. 

(7) 


8 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


the  close  of  the  last  century  he  migrated  to  the  valley  of 
Virginia  and  settled  at  the  place  on  which  is  the  celebrated 
cavern  known  as  Wier's  Cave.  Through  his  grounds  flowed 
the  beautiful  little  South  River  which  forms  one  of  the  three 
branches  of  the  Shenandoah  that  intersect  each  other  near 
the  village  of  Port  Republic.  Upon  this  never-failing  stream 
he  erected  a  sawmill  and  gristmill  which  furnished  lumber  and 
breadstuff  to  the  community  for  miles  around.  Its  revolving 
wheels  were  the  earliest  wonder  upon  which  my  eyes  opened, 
and  as  an  evidence  of  the  skill  with  which  they  were  constructed, 
they  are  yet  in  motion  after  a  lapse  of  more  than  three  score 
years.  But  two  children  were  born  to  my  Grandfather  Amend, 
a  son  and  a  daughter.  The  former  died  in  early  childhood. 
The  death  of  the  mother  soon  followed,  and  the  daughter, 
Mary,  was  the  only  remaining  solace  to  the  bereaved  mill- 
wright. Upon  her  were  quite  naturally  centered  all  his  hopes 
and  affections.  Having  been  the  child  of  poverty  himself 
and,  consequently,  favored  with  none  of  the  advantages  of 
education,  his  experience  of  the  evils  of  such  a  deprivation 
impelled  him  to  obtain  for  his  daughter  such  means  of  instruc- 
tion as  the  country  then  afforded.  The  nearest  school  was  six 
miles  from  his  residence.  This  Mary  attended  from  the  house 
of  a  kinsman  near-by,  to  which  she  went  every  Monday  morn- 
ing, never  failing  to  return  to  her  father  on  the  succeeding 
Saturday,  in  the  evening  of  which  and  the  Sunday  following 
she  would  impart  to  him  the  lessons  she  had  received  during 
the  week. 

"Thus  father  and  child  were  educated  together,  the  child 
obtaining  a  good  English  education,  and  the  father  learning 
to  read  and  write  and  to  cast  up  accounts. 

"My  grandfather,  George  Bingham,  was  born  and  raised 
in  some  of  the  New  England  states,  from  which  at  about  the 


FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE. 


9 


close  of  the  Revolution  he  migrated  to  Virginia  and  settled  on 
the  east  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  about  eighteen  miles  west  of 
Charlottesville,  the  home  of  Jefferson  and  the  seat  of  the 
Virginia  University. 

"He  was  what  is  termed  a  local  Methodist  preacher  and 
as  such  ministered  to  a  congregation  in  a  meeting-house 
erected  for  their  accommodation  upon  his  plantation.  He 
cultivated  tobacco  and  grain  by  the  aid  of  a  number  of  slaves, 
to  whom  he  was  exceedingly  kind  and  indulgent,  never  using 
the  lash  or  allowing  it  to  be  used  upon  his  place. 

"I  remember  him  well  as  a  tall  and  white-headed  old 
gentleman,  overflowing  with  the  milk  of  human  kindness. 
He  had  three  sons  and  four  daughters  who  reached  the  age  of 
maturity.  My  father,  Henry  V.  Bingham,  was  the  oldest  son 
and  the  oldest  child.  He  was  blessed  with  a  good  constitution, 
and  leading  from  early  boyhood  an  active  life,  he  presented  in 
his  person  at  the  time  of  my  remembrance  a  fine  specimen  of 
vigorous  manhood,  measuring  six  feet  in  height  and  weighing 
over  a  hundred  and  eighty  pounds.  His  education  was  only 
such  as  could  be  acquired  in  the  common  field  schools  of  the 
time,  but  he  was  a  constant  reader,  and  his  mind  became  stored 
with  a  good  amount  of  historical  and  political  information. 

"After  reaching  his  twenty-first  year  he  had  the  charge 
of  his  father's  plantation  and  conducted  its  affairs  with  energy 
and  industry,  laboring  in  the  fields  with  the  slaves  and  taking 
the  annual  crop  of  tobacco  to  market  in  Richmond. 

"The  present  era  of  railroads  and  rapid  transportation 
furnishes  a  striking  contrast  to  the  roads  and  locomotive 
powers  which  then  furnished  the  Virginian  with  the  only 
means  of  reaching  a  market  with  the  staple  upon  which  he 
predicated  his  hope  of  future  wealth.  Not  even  the  common 
wagon  was  used.    Each  hogshead  of  tobacco  was  strongly 


10 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


hooped  from  end  to  end,  the  heads  were  made  of  thick  and 
substantial  material,  and  in  the  center  of  each  was  inserted 
a  strong  hickory  pin  to  which  a  pair  of  shafts  were  attached, 
and  by  which  a  single  horse  could  roll  a  hogshead  of  tobacco 
from  the  shed  in  which  it  was  prepared  from  fifty  to  a  hundred 
miles,  as  the  distance  might  be,  to  the  market  which  furnished 
a  purchaser. 

"This  was  generally  done  at  a  season  of  the  year  when  the 
roads  were  dry,  and  when  the  labor  both  of  horses  and  men 
could  be  best  spared  from  the  fields.  At  such  times  the  roads 
to  Richmond  would  be  filled  for  miles  at  a  stretch  with  'tobacco 
rollers*  who  enlivened  the  hours  with  singing  songs  and 
cracking  their  jokes.  Some  of  the  latter  were  occasionally  of 
a  practical  nature  and  calculated  to  test  the  temper  of  their 
unfortunate  subjects. 

"Taking  his  provisions  and  blankets  with  him,  each  roller 
would  encamp,  and  frequently  alone,  wherever  he  might  be  at 
the  approach  of  night,  and  in  the  event  of  a  cloudy  morning  it 
not  infrequently  happened  that  a  roller,  after  attaching  his 
horse  and  traveling  several  miles,  would  be  astonished  by 
meeting  a  roller  traveling  exactly  the  opposite  of  the  course 
which  appeared  to  him  to  be  the  way  to  Richmond.  Questions 
and  answers  would  be  immediately  exchanged  which  would 
make  it  clear  to  his  mind  that  the  shafts  of  his  hogshead, 
which  were  toward  Richmond  when  he  laid  down,  had  been 
reversed  by  some  wicked  rival  while  he  was  asleep,  and  that 
deceived  thereby  he  was  wending  his  way  homeward  instead 
of  lessening  his  distance  to  Richmond.  Should  he  meet  in 
Richmond  the  wag  who  thus  tricked  him,  a  fight  might  ensue, 
or  a  jolly  laugh  and  a  drink  all  around,  as  the  humor  of  the 
parties  might  happen  to  be. 


FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE. 


11 


"In  consequence  of  the  entire  failure  of  the  mill  streams 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge  during  a  period  of  drouth, 
it  became  necessary  for  my  father  to  take  a  load  of  grain 
"over  the  mountain"  to  my  Grandfather  Amend's  mill  on  the 
South  River.  While  there  he  became  acquainted,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  with  my  mother,  Mary  Amend,  fell  in  love  with  her, 
and  in  due  time  offered  himself  in  marriage  and  was  accepted. 

"As  my  mother,  Mary,  was  the  only  treasure  which  my 
Grandfather  Amend  valued,  in  giving  her  away,  he  also 
surrendered  to  my  father  his  entire  earthly  possessions,  stipu- 
lating only  that  he  should  have  a  home  with  his  daughter 
during  the  period  of  his  natural  life. 

"As  soon,  therefore,  as  the  wedding  was  consummated,  my 
father  became  the  proprietor  of  the  lands  including  the  mill 
and  Wier's  Cave,  so  called  in  honor  of  its  discoverer,  a  little 
Dutchman  named  Barnett  Wier,  who  was  in  the  habit  of 
roaming  among  the  hills  and  forests  with  his  dog  and  gun."^ 

Unfortunately,  the  charming  account  breaks  off  here,  and 
we  must  seek  the  rest  through  other  and  often  less  dependable 
sources. 

An  examination  of  records  from  the  circuit  court  office  of 
Augusta  County,  Virginia,  shows  that  Matthias  Amend 
(spelled  Mathias  Amond  in  the  record)  deeded  eleven  hundred 
and  eighty  acres  on  the  South  River  to  Henry  V.  Bingham  on 
the  ninth  of  December,  1809.^  So  we  conclude  that  Henry  V. 
Bingham  and  Mary  Amend  were  married  in  the  year  of  1809. 

As  stated  above,  the  subject  of  our  sketch,  George  Caleb 
Bingham,  was  born  in  1811.  In  1819,  when  he  was  eight  years 
old,  the  family  emigrated  to  Missouri.    His  father  had  lost 


»From  a  copy  by  Miss  May  Simonds  of  the  original  manuscript,  owned  by 
Rollins  Bingham  in  1902. 

^Abstracts  from  Records  of  Augusta  County,  Virginia. 


12 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


money  through  a  security  debt,  and  he  hoped  to  retrieve  his 
fortunes  in  the  great,  alluring  West.  So  with  his  wife  and  seven 
children  and  the  grandfather,  Matthias  Amend,  he  made  the 
long,  hard  journey.  They  settled  in  the  old  town  of  Frank- 
lin in  Howard  County.^ 

Both  town  and  county  have  since  been  totally  changed. 
The  Missouri  River  gradually  made  inroads  upon  the  town,  and 
the  inhabitants  were  compelled  to  move  farther  and  farther 
back,  until  now  what  was  then  the  business  section  forms 
part  of  the  bed  over  which  the  river  flows,  and  the  Franklin 
of  today  is  some  miles  north  of  the  original  site.  The  County 
of  Howard  has  been  organized  into  thirty-one  counties  and 
parts  of  nine  others.^ 

When  we  consider  that  at  the  time  of  the  Bingham  emigra- 
tion Franklin  was  the  most  important  town  west  of  St.  Louis 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  had  had  an  existence  of  only  about 
seven  years,  in  a  county  which  at  the  beginning  of  those  seven 
years  had  only  a  hundred  and  twelve  men  in  all  its  vast  area, 
we  may  form  some  idea  of  the  frontier  nature  of  the  region. 
Though  the  district  had  no  doubt  been  visited  by  French 
trappers  and  hunters  before  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  first  authentic  record  we  have  of  the  advent  of 
white  men  into  the  county  is  contained  in  the  diary  of  Clark, 
who,  with  Lewis,  made  his  exploring  trip  up  the  Missouri  in 
1804.^  At  that  time  many  tribes  of  Indians  occupied  the  county 
and  were  the  source  of  continual  annoyance  to  the  early  settlers, 
who  began  coming  in  1808.  So  forts  and  stockades  were 
erected  for  protection,  and  the  white  men  formed  themselves 
into  a  military  company.    On  the  site  of  Franklin,  Fort 

iNefT,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  ext.  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo.  Miss 
Laura  Rollins  King,  Fort  Worth,  Tex. 

'Conard,  Encyclopedia  of  the  History  of  Missouri,  v.  Ill,  p.  310/. 
^Original  Journals  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition,  v.  1,  part  2. 


FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE. 


13 


Kincaid  was  established  in  1812.  But  after  1815  these  forms 
of  military  defense  were  no  longer  so  essential ;  for  in  that  year 
a  treaty  was  made  with  the  Indians  whereby  they  surrendered 
all  of  Howard  County  as  well  as  other  large  tracts  of  country. 
Thereafter  they  returned  only  about  once  a  year,  and  then 
only  in  small  hunting  parties.^ 

The  early  settlers  had  many  hardships  aside  from  the 
Indian  troubles.  There  were  two  cogmills  run  by  horse-power 
in  the  county — one  of  these  was  at  Franklin — and  corn  was 
carried  on  horseback  for  miles  to  be  ground.  Until  as  late  as 
1835  there  was  no  house  of  worship  in  Howard  County.  In 
1818  a  land  office  was  established  in  Franklin,  and  the  first 
land  sales  west  of  St.  Louis  were  made.  In  the  following  year 
the  first  newspaper  in  Missouri  west  of  St.  Louis  was  published 
there,  and  in  1820  a  four-horse  stage  line  reached  from  the 
metropolis  to  the  flourishing  little  town.^ 

Bingham  showed  his  inclination  toward  art  at  a  very 
early  age;  for  in  later  years,  upon  a  visit  to  the  old  Virginia 
home,  he  found  his  childish  paintings,  done  before  he  was 
eight  years  old,  still  quite  plainly  outlined  on  the  pump,  fence, 
and  outbuildings.^  It  is  said  that  his  first  efTorts  were  made  in 
his  fourth  year,  when  he  attempted  to  copy  a  foreshortened 
figure  rudely  drawn  by  his  father  upon  a  slate.  Delighted 
with  the  results,  he  kept  up  the  practice  of  drawing  until  in 
his  twelfth  year  he  was  able  to  copy  quite  truthfully  such 
engravings  as  he  could  obtain  access  to  through  chance  or 
interested  friends.^  For  paint  in  his  early  experiments  he 
used  axle  grease,  vegetable  dyes,  brick  dust  mixed  with  oil, 

iConard,  op.  cit.,  v.  Ill,  p.  310ff. 
^Ibid. 

»Nefl.  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 

♦Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union.  Aug.,  1849,  pp.  10-12. 


14 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


and  even  his  own  blood,  obtained  by  clipping  the  ends  of  his 
fingers.^  It  seems  probable  that  he  may  have  used  ocher 
too ;  for  official  records  show  that  earlier  owners  of  the  Bingham 
estate  had  got  ocher  from  Wier's  Cave.^ 

In  the  summer  of  1820  Chester  Harding,  who  had  come  to 
St.  Louis  in  the  previous  year,  made  his  first  trip  out  into  the 
wilderness  of  Missouri  to  paint  the  notable  pioneer,  Daniel 
Boone,  who  had  settled  just  across  the  river  from  Franklin  at 
Boonslick,  a  saline  spring  from  which  Boone  and  his  two  sons 
obtained  salt,  shipping  it  down  the  Missouri  to  St.  Louis  in 
rude  canoes  made  of  hollow  sycamore  logs.^  Harding  tells 
in  his  My  Egotistigraphy  of  the  rude,  primitive  life  of  this  old 
settler  and  of  his  astonishment  and  that  of  his  eighteen  children 
as  they  watched  the  likeness  grow  upon  the  canvas.'*  Perhaps 
the  little  nine-year-old  George  Bingham  watched  part  of  the 
process  or  saw  the  picture  when  it  was  completed.  At  least 
he  must  have  seen  some  of  Harding's  work;  for  he  himself 
has  told  of  becoming  interested  in  and  receiving  his  first 
impression  of  portrait  painting  from  Chester  Harding  when 
the  latter  was  temporarily  residing  in  Franklin  in  1820.^ 

In  Franklin  H.  V.  Bingham  with  his  family  lived  for  four 
years  and  enjoyed  a  degree  of  prosperity.  The  rich  clay  loam 
soil  of  the  region  is  suitable  for  raising  tobacco,  and  the  average 
production  of  the  highest  part  of  the  county  amounts  to  a 
thousand  pounds  an  acre.^  Mr.  Bingham  realized  the  value 
of  the  land  for  the  purpose,  and,  with  a  partner,  erected  a 
tobacco  factory  in  Franklin.''    He  also  bought  a  farm  of  one 

iNeff,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 

*  Abstracts  from  Records  of  Augusta  Co.,  Virginia. 
•Harding,  Chester:    My  Egotistigraphy,  p.  35/, 
*Ibid. 

'Letter  From  James  Harding,  son  of  Chester  Harding,  to  Miss  Simonds, 
Feb.  12,  1902. 

«Conard.  op.  cit.,  v.  Ill,  p.  310/. 
'NefT,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 


FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE. 


15 


hundred  and  sixty  acres  in  Arrow  Rock  Township,  SaUne 
County.  In  1821  he  was  county  court  judge,  and  he  owned  a 
tavern  northwest  of  the  pubHc  square  in  FrankHn,  with  the 
sign  of  the  "Square  and  Compass."^ 

But  reverses  came.  In  1823  the  father  died,  leaving  the 
mother  with  the  large  family  of  children,  of  whom  the  oldest, 
Henry,  was  only  about  fourteen  and  the  next,  George,  was 
twelve.  Either  Mr.  Bingham  had  failed  in  his  tobacco  venture 
or  his  partner  defrauded  his  widow  and  children  of  their 
interest;  for  they  found  themselves  with  nothing  left  but  the 
little  farm  in  Saline  County,  about  three  miles  from  Arrow 
Rock.2  To  this,  then,  they  came  in  1823,  and  they  found  a 
country  still  more  primitive  than  the  one  they  had  left;  for 
Saline  County's  earliest  settlers  consisted  of  the  overflow 
from  Howard  County.  In  1828  there  was  still  a  large  settle- 
ment of  Osage  Indians  near  Malta  Bend,  about  thirty  miles 
from  Arrow  Rock,  and  bands  of  other  Indians  roved  about 
over  the  county.  In  1819  the  white  population  of  the  entire 
county  numbered  but  three  hundred.^ 

It  was  necessary  for  the  older  members  of  the  family  to 
bend  every  effort  toward  earning  money  for  food  and  clothing. 
The  mother's  education  now  stood  her  in  good  stead.  She 
not  only  taught  her  own  children,  but  she  also  opened  a 
small  school  for  young  women.*  There  were  as  yet  perhaps 
no  school  houses  in  the  country ;  but  education  was  not  entirely 
neglected;  schools  were  run  upon  private  subscriptions  and 
were  held  in  homes  where  a  room  could  be  spared  for  the  pur- 
pose. Mrs.  Bingham  also  boarded  her  students  who  came 
from  a  distance.    She  was  probably  as  well  equipped  for 

»Houck,  History  of  Missouri,  v.  III.  p.  60. 
^Neflf,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 
•Conard,  op.  cit.,  v.  V,  p.  475. 
*Neff,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 


16 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


teaching  as  anyone  in  the  locaHty;  for  aside  from  her  own 
education  she  had  a  good,  even  if  small,  library  of  English 
literature,  which  she  had  saved,  and  from  which  George  ob- 
tained the  foundation  for  the  excellent  command  of  English 
that  he  evinced  in  later  life.  He  now  helped  his  brother  in 
caring  for  the  little  farm,  and  during  seasons  in  which  the 
crops  did  not  demand  attention,  they  busied  themselves  at 
whatever  other  occupations  could  be  found.  George  was  quite 
skillful  at  making  cigars,  a  trade  which  he  had  probably 
learned  in  his  father's  factory  at  Franklin.  It  must  have  been 
more  difficult  now  than  ever  before  for  him  to  obtain  time  and 
materials  for  drawing  and  painting;  but  all  through  his  life 
he  showed  a  spirit  of  determination  that  could  not  be  crushed 
by  difficulties.  And  in  these  hard  circumstances  many  an  odd 
hour  left  over  from  the  day's  work  he  spent  in  drawing  and 
painting. 1 

When,  in  his  sixteenth  year,  an  opportunity  was  offered 
him  to  serve  as  an  apprentice  to  a  cabinet-maker  in  Boonville, 
his  mother  was  glad  to  have  him  accept  the  position,  thinking 
that  such  work  would  be  less  trying  on  his  delicate  health 
than  the  farm  work,  which  necessitated  so  much  exposure. 
It  is  said  that  the  cabinet-maker  was  also  an  itinerant  Metho- 
dist preacher,  by  the  name  of  Jesse  Green.^  He  probably  met 
George  and  his  mother  often  in  the  camp-meetings,  which  were 
of  much  significance  in  the  lives  of  the  people  of  the  day, 
being  not  only  their  sole  occasions  of  congregational  religious 
worship,  but  also  serving  as  means  of  social  intercourse  among 
the  people  who  lived  many  miles  apart.  The  young  apprentice  * 
did  good  work  as  a  cabinet-maker,  surpassing  his  fellow- 
workers,  and  he  also  proved  to  be  adept  as  a  wood-carver. 


'Simonds,  Miss  May,  Unpublished  Sketch  of  Bingham's  Life. 


Plate  II 


JUDGE  DAVID  TODD 


Plate  III 


Property  of  Dr.  J.  T.  M.  Johnston 

MRS.  WM.  JOHNSTON 


FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE. 


17 


showing  an  artistic  taste  in  his  designs.  But  though  he  did  all 
that  was  required  of  him  in  the  shop,  thus  earning  money 
enough  to  help  out  very  materially  in  supporting  the  family 
at  home,  he  did  not  enjoy  the  work;  he  was  always  glad  when 
he  could  get  time  off  to  be  in  the  out-of-doors  or  to  draw  and 
paint.  He  still  had  to  content  himself  with  very  inadequate 
materials,  using  boards,  which  he  himself  prepared,  in  lieu 
of  canvases,  and  an  earthy  variety  of  hematite  called  "keel" 
for  sketching.^ 

But  along  with  his  cabinet-making  and  painting  Bingham 
began  the  study  of  law  at  this  time.  He  hoped  to  be  able  to 
receive  better  training  in  the  profession  later,  when  his  appren- 
ticeship should  be  completed,  and  eventually  to  become  an 
efficient  lawyer.  He  also  at  some  time  in  his  life  gave  a  good 
deal  of  study  to  theology,  planning  to  enter  the  Methodist 
ministry.^  And  it  seems  very  probable  that  such  study  was 
made  in  this  period  of  years,  when  he  was  working  in  the  shop 
of  a  Methodist  preacher  and  was  in  a  state  of  uncertainty  as 
to  the  career  he  should  follow,  vacillating  between  various 
professions.  But  before  his  apprenticeship  was  finished,  he 
again  met  Chester  Harding,  and  upon  Harding's  advice  he 
gave  up  all  else  and  turned  to  painting  as  his  life  work.^  We 
are  also  told  that  Harding  gave  the  young  cabinet-maker  his 
first  instructions  in  painting.^ 

»Col.  R.  B.  Price,  Columbia,  Mo. 
2Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 

'Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham,  son  of  the  artist,  to  Miss  Simonds,  Mar.  1, 
1902. 

♦Simonds,  Miss  May,  op.  cit.  (From  Bingham  through  Mr.  Matthew 
Hastings,  an  old  acquaintance  of  the  artist.) 


2 


18 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FIRST  WORK  IN  PAINTING  (1830-37). 

Bingham  had  hardly  mastered  the  rudiments  of  his 
profession  before  he  began  to  receive  sittings  for  portraits. 
He  probably  did  his  first  work  in  a  studio  in  Franklin  which  we 
learn  from  a  letter  (the  signature  is  omitted)  published  in  the 
Missouri  Statesman  was  gratuitously  placed  at  his  disposal. ^ 
His  first  portrait  work  was  done  with  such  materials  as  a 
house-painter's  shop  could  supply,  together  with  some  stumps 
of  brushes  abandoned  by  an  itinerant  artist,^  perhaps  Harding 
himself.  He  had  little  sense  of  color ;  but  his  drawing  produced 
such  striking  likenesses  that  he  soon  had  a  large  number  of 
patrons,  many  of  whom,  unsophisticated  as  they  were,  looked 
upon  his  creations  as  the  perfection  of  the  "divine  art."  No 
less  remarkable  was  his  facility  of  execution.  It  is  said  that  he 
often  completed  a  portrait  in  one  day,  and  that  he  made  the 
record  of  twenty-five  in  the  course  of  thirty  days.^  We  are 
told  of  one  occasion  when  he  went  into  a  little  town,  "hung  out 
his  shingle/'  painted  the  portraits  of  seven  lawyers  and  three 
doctors  to  everybody's  satisfaction,  pocketed  the  proceeds, 
and  left  town,  all  within  the  space  of  a  month.^    In  writing  of 
the  early  days  in  Missouri  one  author  says:    "Almost  every 
family  had  its  Bingham  portraits,  the  family  carriage,  the 
family  jewelry  and  the  family  burying  ground."^ 

A  portrait  of  Judge  David  Todd,  a  lawyer  who  settled 
in  Franklin  in  the  early  days,  is  reckoned  as  our  artist's  first 

^Missouri  Statesman,  Aug.  15,  1879. 

^Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union,  Aug.,  1849,  pp.  10-12. 
*Ibid. 

«Slmonds,  Miss  May,  op.  cit.    (From  Mr.  Hastings.) 

•Whitney,  Mrs.  Carrie  W.,  History  of  Kansas  City.  Mo.,  v.  I,  p.  649. 


Plate  IV 


Property  of  Dr.  Woodson  Moss 

JUDGE  WARREN  WOODSON 


Property  of  Mrs.  J.  IF.  Stone 

HON.  JOSIAH  WILSON 


FIRST  WORK  IN  PAINTING. 


19 


serious  work.^  The  painting  was  destroyed  in  the  University 
of  Missouri  fire  of  1892;  but  a  photograph  of  it  shows  us  the 
general  character  of  the  work  (PI.  II).  In  spite  of  a  somewhat 
faulty  drawing  and  inadequate  modelling,  the  portrait  is  by 
no  means  void  of  character.  Judge  Todd  was  born  in  about 
1790;  he  is  represented  here  at  slightly  past  forty;  so  the  paint- 
ing was  evidently  done  soon  after  1830,  probably  in  1832  or 
*33.  To  about  the  same  time  we  must  assign  the  portrait  of  Mrs. 
Wm.  Johnston,  done  on  wood  instead  of  canvas.  Mrs.  John- 
ston was  born  in  1787,  and  she  does  not  appear  to  be  much  past 
forty  in  the  portrait.  She  wears  a  collar  and  headdress  of 
filmy  lace,  which  serve  to  light  up  that  part  of  the  picture,  while 
the  rest  is  very  dull  and  dark  (PI.  III). 

In  1834  Bingham  went  to  Columbia,  Missouri,  and  painted 
some  of  the  prominent  citizens,  among  them  Col.  Caleb  S. 
Stone,  Maj.  James  S.  Rollins,  Judge  Warren  Woodson  and 
Hon.  Josiah  Wilson  (Pis.  IV  and  V).  The  last  three  he 
finished  at  one  time,  and  an  anecdote  is  told  of  the  bewilder- 
ment of  the  three  men  when  they  came  for  their  pictures. 
Bingham  turned  the  faces  of  the  paintings  around  from  the 
wall  and  bade  his  patrons  choose.  Each  pretended  to  be 
puzzled  as  to  which  he  should  take.^  In  reality,  the  pictures 
do  resemble  each  other  somewhat.  In  the  first  place,  all  three 
of  the  young  men  had  black  hair  and  ruddy  complexions  and 
wore  the  stiff -bosom  shirt,  the  broad  re  vers  and  the  inevitable 
high  stock.  Then,  the  manner  of  treatment  of  the  three  is  the 
same.  All  are  placed  in  the  same  lighting,  all  present  a  left 
three-quarters  view  of  the  face  and  bust  and,  evidently,  all 
have  been  told  to  look  at  the  same  spot  while  their  pictures 
were  being  made.    The  paint,  of  dull  tones,  is  laid  on  thinly. 


^Missouri  Statesman,  Jan.  16,  1880. 
«Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins. 


20 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


The  flesh  has  a  ruddy,  leathery  appearance,  and  the  hair, 
particularly  in  the  portrait  of  Judge  Wilson,  has  more  of  the 
appearance  of  a  wig  than  of  real  hair,  so  clearly  defined  and 
regular  is  its  outline  against  the  face.  But  in  spite  of  a  certain 
stifi^ness  and  conventionality  of  the  works,  they  show  the 
result  of  no  little  ability  for  catching  likenesses  and  for  putting 
them  upon  canvas  in  a  firm,  straightforward  manner.  There 
is  also  a  proper  subordination  of  the  non-essentials;  details 
of  dress  are  not  insisted  upon,  but  are  treated  comparatively 
summarily  and  are  kept  in  the  shadow,  while  the  full  light  falls 
upon  the  face.  A  self-portrait  painted  in  1835  when  Bingham 
was  twenty-four  years  old  is  done  in  the  same  style  as  the 
preceding  ones  (PI.  VI) .  A  comparison  of  it  with  a  photograph 
taken  at  about  the  same  time^  leads  us  to  believe  that  he 
considered  himself  rather  more  handsome  than  he  really  was. 
Both  pictures  show  a  noble  brow  and  an  alert,  intellectual  face. 
Bingham  was  always  a  small,  delicate  man  in  body,  but  the 
charm  of  his  face  compensated  for  that. 

It  was  upon  this  visit  to  Columbia  that  Bingham  first 
met  James  S.  Rollins,  a  young  lawyer  of  about  his  own  age, 
who  proved  a  most  substantial  friend  to  him  all  his  life.  Mr. 
Rollins  immediately  became  interested  in  the  young  artist  and 
lent  him  a  hundred  dollars,  which  made  it  possible  for  him  to 
go  to  St.  Louis  to  study.  He  had  attempted  the  trip  once 
before,  starting  out  afoot  toward  the  city,  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  distant,  with  his  little  bundle  of  belongings 
swung  over  his  shoulder.  But  some  time  before  he  had  reached 
his  destination,  he  was  attacked  by  measles  and  lay  in  an 
old  log  cabin,  completely  deserted,  save  for  a  young  doctor 
and  an  old  negress,  who  cared  for  him.  The  negress  could  not 
be  induced  to  go  near  the  sufferer,  but  she  poked  food  and  drink 


iPhotograph  owned  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins. 


Plate  VI 


Plate  VII 


Property  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins 

DR.  ANTHONY  W.  ROLLINS 


Plate  VITI 


Property  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins 

MRS.  ANTHONY  \V.  ROLLINS 


FIRST  WORK  IN  PAINTING. 


21 


through  a  crack  into  the  cabin,  and  the  doctor  nursed  Bingham 
carefully  until  he  was  strong  enough  to  care  for  himself.  Com- 
pletely shattered  in  health,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  com- 
plete his  journey;  so  he  returned  to  his  home  in  Saline  County.^ 
We  know  that  he  had  a  severe  case  of  measles,  which  left  him 
entirely  bald  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  when  he  was  nineteen  years 
old  ;^  so  his  first  attempt  at  a  trip  to  St.  Louis  must  have  been 
made  at  that  time — in  1830. 

It  was  a  great  disappointment  to  the  young  aspirant  to 
be  thus  compelled  to  return  home,  his  plans  blighted  and  his 
body  so  emaciated  that  even  his  mother  did  not  know  him. 
But  he  was  not  discouraged  for  long.  He  applied  himself  to 
portrait  painting  for  a  few  years,  as  we  have  seen,  and  then  in 
1835,  with  the  financial  help  of  Mr.  Rollins,  he  started  again 
and  this  time  reached  St.  Louis.  We  conclude  that  it  was 
sometime  in  1835  that  he  went  because  he  was  working  in  and 
near  his  home  in  1833  and  '34,  and  in  1835  he  painted  residents 
of  Clay  County.^  Then,  as  is  stated  below,  there  is  dependable 
record  of  his  being  in  St.  Louis  early  in  1836.  We  do  not  know 
whom  he  studied  under  in  St.  Louis;  we  are  told  only  that  he 
kept  in  touch  with  Chester  Harding  whenever  the  latter  was  in 
the  city.^  His  extreme  poverty  made  it  necessary  for  him  to 
undergo,  literally,  the  proverbial  hardships  of  the  young 
artist.  During  his  stay  in  the  city  he  slept  rolled  up  in  a 
blanket  in  an  unfinished  attic.  In  spite  of  his  humble  condition 
he  soon  made  friends  in  the  best  circle  of  cultured,  intellectual 
people  and  was  induced  to  visit  them  in  their  homes.^  A 
letter  written  from  St.  Louis,  February  13,  1836,  to  his  fiancee, 

>Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins. 
m>id. 

»See  appendix. 

*Simonds,  Miss  May,  op.  cit. 
•Neflf,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 


22 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


Miss  Elizabeth  Hutchison,  of  Boonville,  leaves  us  in  no  doubt 
as  to  his  location  at  that  time.  From  the  contents  of  this 
letter  it  would  appear  that  he  was  then  not  spending  all  of 
his  time  in  learning  for  its  own  sake,  but  that  he  was  probably 
painting  portraits  in  order  to  earn  money.  At  least,  he  tells 
his  sweetheart  that  he  had  not  insisted  upon  their  immediate 
union  when  he  saw  her  last  because  he  felt  that  it  was  best 
"to  struggle  for  a  while  alone"  until  he  could  place  his  mother 
in  a  comfortable  situation  "and  be  even  with  the  world." 
The  letter,  the  language  of  which  shows  culture  and  refine- 
ment, is  full  of  the  suggestion  of  the  struggle  with  difficulties 
which  he  was  encountering;  but  still  he  expresses  a  growing 
confidence  in  his  succeeding  as  a  painter  and  a  determination 
to  bend  every  effort  toward  becoming  distinguished  in  the 
profession.  "(I  am  more)  confident  now  (of  suc)ceeding  as 
a  painter  t(han)  I  was  before  I  (came)  here,  I  design  next 
winter  to  try  (what)  I  can  do  in  the  South  and  wherever  I 
(may)  be,  I  am  determined  to  use  every  exertion  to  become 
distinguished  in  the  profession  which  I  have  adopted." 
From  other  fragments  of  the  letter  it  may  be  inferred  that 
Bingham  expected  by  the  first  of  April  to  be  financially  able  to 
marry,  and  he  expresses  the  supposition  that  the  wedding, 
which  they  once  expected  to  have  in  Franklin,  will  "then, 
at  last,"  take  place  in  Boonville.^ 

He  did  return  to  Boonville  sometime  in  the  year  of  1836 
and  was  married  to  the  Miss  Hutchison  referred  to  above,  a 
young  woman  of  but  seventeen  years,  who  was  always  spoken 
of  as  being  very  charming  and  beautiful,  amiable  and  intelli- 
gent. Before  the  wedding  he  had  built  with  his  own  hands  the 
small  but  substantial  brick  house  in  Arrow  Rock,  which  is 


'Letter  lent  the  author  by  Mrs.  Arthur  J.  Walter,  Adrian,  Mo.  The 
portions  in  parenthesis  are  missing  in  the  mutilated  original  letter. 


Plate  IX 


Properly  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins 

JOSIAH  LAMME 


Property  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins 

MRS.  JOSIAH  LAMME  AND  SON 


-'V 


FIRST  WORK  IN  PAINTING. 


23 


still  standing.^  To  this  new  home,  also  shared  with  his 
mother  until  her  death,  Bingham  brought  his  young  bride.^ 

In  1837  we  find  him  again  in  Columbia  working  upon 
portraiture.  A  portrait  of  Dr.  Anthony  W.  Rollins,  which  was 
in  1871  presented  to  the  University  and  was  deemed  "a  most 
faithful  and  accurate  likeness"  of  the  subject,^  was  painted  at 
this  time.  (PI.  VII).  Also,  in  the  same  year  were  made 
portraits  of  Mrs.  Anthony  W.  Rollins,  Mr.  Josiah  Lamme, 
Mrs.  Josiah  Lamme  and  little  son,  Hon.  Roger  North  Todd 
and  General  Richard  Gentry.  All  of  these  show  a  decided 
advance  in  freedom  of  handling.  The  heads  are  again  turned 
to  the  left  and  are  quite  uniform  in  the  angle  which  they 
present,  a  little  more  of  a  front  view  being  given  than  in  the 
earlier  portraits  (the  portrait  of  Judge  Todd  excepted). 
But  the  features  are  less  sharply  outlined  and  less  conventional, 
and  the  lights  and  shades  and  modelling  are  better,  giving 
a  more  pictorial  quality  to  the  work.  The  flesh  tones,  too, 
show  improvement;  they  are  not  so  leathery  in  appearance. 
But  most  noticeable  of  all  is  the  improvement  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  hair.  The  contrast  is  most  striking  between  the 
portraits  of  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Lamme  (Pis.  V  and  IX). 
In  the  latter  we  are  given  much  more  of  the  quality  of  real 
hair,  which  frames  in  the  face  with  a  slightly  irregular  contour, 
rather  than  with  sharp,  geometrically  correct  lines.  The  face 
of  the  Wilson  portrait,  too,  seems  almost  made  of  metal  in 
comparison  with  the  flesh  quality  expressed  in  the  other.  We 
have  not  the  feeling  that  the  model  was  so  carefully  posed  and 
his  clothes  arranged  with  such  impossible  stiff^ness  and  smooth- 
ness in  the  later  portrait.  The  representation  of  Mrs.  Anthony 
W.  RolHns  is  convincing  (PI.  VIII).   The  honest,  substantial 


•Miss  Laura  Rollins  King,  Fort  Worth,  Tex. 
«Neff,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 

»Switzler,  W.  F.,  History  of  the  University  of  Mo.  'Unpublished.) 


24 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


character  of  this  woman,  in  whose  face  the  cares  of  pioneer 
life  have  left  their  lines,  is  clearly  expressed.  The  portraits 
of  Hon.  Roger  North  Todd  and  Gen.  Richard  Gentry  (Pis. 
XI  and  XII),  particularly  the  former,  are  noteworthy  for 
their  vivacity  and  spirit.  Mrs.  Josiah  Lamme  and  little  son 
(PI.  X),  form  the  first  portrait  group,  probably,  which  Bingham 
undertook.  The  head  of  the  mother  is  done  quite  satis- 
factorily. The  modelling  of  the  neck  is  a  bit  bad,  and  the 
left  shoulder  is  a  little  too  long,  but  the  face  is  well  modelled 
and  full  of  life.  The  hands  and  the  baby,  however,  are  new 
problems.  The  hands  are  arranged  awkwardly,  but  the  artist 
has  rightly  considered  them  of  minor  importance  and  has 
given  them  little  emphasis.  The  baby  has  too  old  an  expres- 
sion; his  head  is  fairly  well  modelled,  but  his  neck  and  chest 
are  wrong,  and  his  head  and  neck  are  not  in  proper  relation- 
ship to  the  rest  of  his  body. 

A  portrait  of  Mr.  Thomas  Miller,  first  president  of 
Columbia  College,  was  also  probably  painted  in  this  same  year, 
1837.  It  is  of  particular  interest  because  it  is  the  smallest 
portrait  (it  is  a  true  miniature)  that,  as  far  as  we  know, 
Bingham  ever  painted.  It  is  here  reproduced  in  its  original 
size  (PI.  XIII). 


Plate  XI 


Property  oj  Mr.  N.  T.  Gentry 

ROGER  NORTH  TOED 


Plate  XII 


Property  of  Mr.  W.  R.  Gentry 

GEN.  RICHARD  GENTRY 


Plate  XIII 


Property  of  Miss  Ruth  Rollins 

THOMAS  MILLER 


IN  PHILADELPHIA  AND  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


25 


CHAPTER  III. 

IN  PHILADELPHIA  AND  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  (1837-44). 

In  1837  Bingham  went  to  Philadelphia  to  study  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  the  oldest  and  most 
flourishing  art  institution  in  the  country.  Here  he  must  have 
come  into  contact  with  the  work  of  artists  of  the  Revolutionary 
period  of  American  art,  most  important  among  them  Gilbert 
Stuart,  the  great  portrait  painter,  who  had  received  his 
training  in  England  in  the  time  of  the  notable  English  portrait 
painters.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and  Sir  Thomas  Gainsborough. 
A  number  of  years  later  Bingham  made  copies  of  Stuart's 
Athenaeum  portraits  of  George  and  Martha  Washington.^ 
Among  contemporaries  whose  work  he  must  have  seen  in 
Philadelphia  are  Thomas  Sully,  portrait  painter,  and  John 
Neagle,  whose  portrait — almost  genre — of  Pat  Lyons  painted 
in  1826  excited  so  much  interest  on  account  of  its  truthful 
representation  of  the  sturdy  character  of  the  blacksmith. 
Above  all,  Bingham  now  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  genre 
paintings,  the  branch  of  art  which  interested  him  most. 
He,  like  many  another  in  his  day,  gave  a  great  deal  of  time  to 
portraiture,  though  considering  it  a  comparatively  low  form  of 
art,  because  it  was  the  surest  and  quickest  source  of  income. 
It  was  to  literary  subjects  that  he  aspired,  to  pictures  that  tell 
a  story.  So  he  must  have  been  interested  in  the  work  of 
Inman  and  other  genre  painters  who  were  working  in  Phila- 
delphia at  the  time.  No  doubt  he  began  making  sketches  of 
genre  scenes  himself,  though  we  have  no  definite  knowledge 
of  any  of  his  work  in  that  line  until  several  years  later. 


'See  p.  67. 


26 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


Some  sketches  of  Bingham's  life  written  since  his  death 
state  that  he  stayed  in  Philadelphia  three  years.  But  that 
estimate  seems  incorrect;  for  of  two  sketches  written  in  his 
lifetime  one,  published  in  1876,  states  only  that  "in  1837  he 
visited  Philadelphia  and  studied  for  a  time  in  the  Philadelphia 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts."^  Of  course  the  phrase  "for  a  time" 
is  rather  indefinite.  But  a  still  earlier  article,  written  in 
1849,  limits  his  stay  to  three  months.^  This  article  gives  the 
date  as  1838,  however,  so  he  may  have  made  more  than  one 
trip  to  Philadelphia  in  these  years.  From  the  fact  that  it  is 
only  in  the  very  recent  sketches  that  he  is  said  to  have  spent 
three  years  in  the  art  center,  it  is  probable  that  this  idea  has 
grown  up  through  association  with  the  date  always  given  next 
in  order,  1840,  when  he  went  to  Washington ;  and  so  biographers 
assume  that  he  went  from  Philadelphia  to  Washington. 
A  portrait  of  Mrs.  Thomas  Shackelford  of  Saline  County,  the 
only  known  dated  portrait  by  Bingham  which  is  well  authenti- 
cated, bears  upon  a  card  held  by  the  woman  these  words  in 
her  own  handwriting:  "To  my  children:  When  deprived  of 
my  counsel  forget  not  my  precepts.  Shun  vice,  love  virtue. 
Jan.  1,  1839."  This  inscription  was  undoubtedly  placed  on 
the  picture  immediately  after  its  completion,  the  card  being 
painted  for  that  purpose.  The  portraits  of  several  other 
residents  of  Saline  County  are  assigned  to  this  time.^  So 
Bingham  was  evidently  at  home  in  1839  and  even  in  the  latter 
part  of  1838,  according  to  the  date  on  the  portrait  of  Mrs. 
Shackelford. 

We  know  that  he  was  back  in  Missouri  at  least  as  early 
as  June  of  1840;  for  at  that  time  he  was  taking  an  active  part  in 
the  presidential  campaign  which  created  such  intense  interest 


'Davis  and  Durrie,  History  of  Missouri,  p.  469. 

^Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union.  Aug.,  1849.  pp.  10-12. 

'See  appendix. 


Plate  XIV 


Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis 


SKETCHES 


Plate  XV 


Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis 

SKETCHES 


IN  PHILADELPHIA  AND  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


27 


throughout  the  states  that  year,  and  particularly  in  states 
that  were  as  evenly  divided  between  Whigs  and  Democrats  as 
was  Missouri.  Great  mass-meetings,  to  which  people  came 
from  many  miles,  were  held.  They  often  lasted  for  several 
days.  Distinguished  speakers  used  all  the  oratory  they  could 
muster,  and  banners,  music  and  hard  cider  helped  to  keep  up 
the  enthusiasm  that  prevailed.^  The  largest  and  most 
elaborately  prepared  meeting  in  Missouri  was  the  one  held  at 
Rocheport  in  Boone  County  in  June  of  that  memorable  year. 
Here  for  three  days  on  the  little  hill  east  of  town  in  a  grove  of 
sugar  trees  "the  friends  of  'Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too'  held 
high  carnival  and  bid  defiance  to  the  absent  hosts  of  Van 
Buren  and  Johnson."  Bingham  was  one  of  the  speakers  at 
this  convention .2  He  was  of  such  a  strong,  positive  character 
and  was  so  much  in  sympathy  with  his  countrymen  that  he 
was  always  a  leader  among  them.  And  while  he  was  taking  a 
prominent  part  in  these  political  affairs,  because  he  was  so 
vitally  interested  in  the  points  at  issue,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
studying  the  characters  of  the  people  whom  he  saw  about  him, 
noting  their  humorous  as  well  as  their  serious  characteristics. 
And  he  no  doubt  spent  many  an  odd  minute  sketching  figures 
and  attitudes  that  attracted  him  (e.  g.  Pis.  XI V  and  XV) 
These  sketches  made  at  various  times  while  he  was  making 
stump  speeches,  not  only  for  others,  but  for  himself  later  when 
he  was  running  for  office,  he  worked  into  his  compositions, 

•Barns,  The  Commonwealth  of  Mo.,  p.  256. 
*Ibid. 

•Mr.  N.  T.  Gentry  tell  us  of  a  drawing,  the  present  location  of  which  is 
not  known,  representing  a  horse  race  with  all  its  attendant  scenes  very  cleverly 
portrayed.  One  of  the  sketches  we  reproduce  here,  the  man  with  the  whip 
and  the  bandaged  head  (PI.  XIV,  4),  may  possibly  have  served  as  a  study  for 
one  of  the  figures  in  that  drawing.  We  do  not  know  whether  the  subject  of  the 
horse  race  was  ever  worked  out  in  a  painting  by  Bingham. 


28 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


which  he  painted  in  his  studio,  putting  in  the  setting  and 
arranging  the  compositions  from  memory  plus  imagination.^ 

A  portrait  of  the  artist's  wife,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Hutchison 
Bingham,  probably  belongs  to  this  period.  The  richness  of 
color  and  the  fineness  of  finish  might  justify  our  placing  it 
at  a  little  later  date.  But  unless  the  youthfulness  of  the 
subject  is  exaggerated,  she  was  no  more  than  twenty-one  or 
two  years  old;  so  the  portrait  was  probably  made  soon  after 
1840.  Bingham  called  it  The  Dull  Story,  and  it  might  quite 
as  well  be  considered  in  the  class  of  genre  works  as  in  that  of 
portraiture.  Finding  her  asleep  one  day  with  an  open  book 
in  her  lap,  a  book  in  which  she  had  professed  profound  interest, 
her  husband  was  struck  by  the  humor  and,  at  the  same  time, 
the  beauty  of  the  picture It  is  the  beauty  that  he  has  paid 
most  attention  to  in  his  painting.  The  charming  young 
woman,  with  jet  black  hair  and  pink  and  white  complexion, 
dressed  in  a  shimmery  satin  gown  with  a  rose  in  her  bosom, 
is  lying  back  in  a  mahogany  chair  among  deep  green  cushions, 
fast  asleep.  The  idea  of  sleep  is  quite  well  expressed,  though 
the  face  is  a  little  chromo-like  and  we  feel  that  the  artist  has 
been  rather  more  interested  in  abstract  beauty  than  in  absolute 
truth  to  nature.  Quite  pleasing  is  the  arrangement  of  the 
composition  on  the  large  canvas,  and  the  juxtaposition  of 
rich  rose,  red  and  green  colors  is  quite  remarkable  for  an 
artist  who  was  in  general  no  colorist.  Very  often  he  was  unable 
to  obtain  good  canvases,  and  we  find  him  using  boards,  table- 
linen  and  paper,  and  here  he  has  used  a  canvas  already  made 
stiff  and  hard  by  a  painting  on  the  back  of  it.  It  is  the  lower 
part  of  a  woman's  figure  with  trailing  white  satin  gown  and 
with  feet  daintily  clad  in  satin  slippers. 


•Col.  R.  B.  Price. 

'Miss  Margaret  Nelson,  Kansas  City. 


Plate  XVI 


Property  of  the  G.  B.  Rollins  Estate 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 


Plate  XVII 


IN  PHILADELPHIA  AND  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  29 

Later  in  1840  Bingham  went  to  Washington  and  opened  a 
studio,  as  did  many  of  the  early  artists;  for  among  the  states- 
men at  the  Capitol  there  was  the  greatest  demand  for  portraits, 
which  should  serve  as  memorials  of  their  greatness  to  posterity. 
His  studio  in  Washington  was  a  small  and  simple  building,  very 
hot,  but  with  plenty  of  light,  and  Bingham  was  fond  of  telling 
how  flies  held  high  carnival  on  the  bald  head  of  Van  Buren, 
drawing  from  that  august  personage  "many  expressions  of 
heartfelt  profanity,"  while  he  was  sitting  for  his  portrait.^ 
The  studio  was  located  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  a  part  of 
the  city  which  at  that  time  was  so  thinly  populated  that  it 
was  as  much  country  as  city.  The  building  stood  in  an  iso- 
lated spot,  surrounded  only  by  pastures  and  fields.  But  it  was 
not  too  far  away  for  patrons.  Perhaps  the  very  quietness 
of  the  place  attracted  people.  Bingham  is  said  to  have  painted 
a  host  of  celebrities  while  there,  among  them  Webster,  Clay, 
Walker,  Breckenridge,  Andrew  Jackson,  Calhoun,  Buchanan,^ 
Van  Buren,  John  Howard  Payne,  and  John  Quincy  Adams. 
A  study  for  the  last  is  rather  more  rudely  done  than  usual; 
but  the  finished  portrait,  much  smaller  than  the  study,  is 
carefully  wrought  and  full  of  character  in  spite  of  its  small 
size  (PI.  XVI).  It  is  painted  on  a  walnut  board  and  is  of  a 
dull  brown  tone;  the  bust  is  placed  against  a  lighter  yellow- 
brown  background.  We  are  told  that  this  portrait  was  the 
indirect  outcome  of  a  theological  discussion.  Ex-President 
Adams,  then  a  member  of  Congress,  had  stopped  in  one  day 
at  the  studio,  and  in  a  debate  upon  the  Bible  which  ensued, 
Bingham,  who,  we  remember,  had  spent  some  time  in  studying 
for  the  ministry,  so  completely  worsted  the  congressman  that 


'Simonds,  Miss  May,  op.  cit. 

^St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  Nov.  6,  1904,  Mr.  Shannon  Mountjoy. 


30 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


the  latter  exclaimed:  "If  you  know  as  much  about  painting 
portraits  as  you  do  about  the  Bible,  I'll  give  you  a  sitting."^ 

John  Howard  Payne  was  another  who  frequented  the 
Washington  studio.  He  came  not  to  engage  in  discussions, 
however,  but  to  watch  the  artist  at  his  work.  And  Bingham 
painted  him  in  the  attitude  which  he  was  wont  to  assume  upon 
these  occasions.^  He  sits  on  a  small  chair,  his  arm  resting  on 
the  back  of  it  and  his  head  upon  his  hand  (PI.  XVH).  This 
portrait,  like  the  one  of  Adams,  is  small — about  seven  by  nine 
inches.  But  its  most  unique  characteristic  consists  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  painted  in  water  color.  It  is  the  only  known 
extant  work  by  Bingham  done  in  that  medium.  Upon  the 
picture  is  the  written  inscription: 

''Author  of 

'Home  Sweet  Home* 

Presented  by  John  Howard  Payne 
To  G.  C.  Bingham." 
The  drawing  is  faulty  in  some  parts,  particularly  in  the  arms 
and  fingers;  the  chair  and  lower  part  of  the  bust  are  treated 
very  sketchily,  that  they  may  not  draw  undue  attention  to 
themselves;  but  the  face  is  done  with  quite  miniature-like 
exactness.  The  flesh  tones  are  good,  and  the  whole  is  re- 
markably well  done  for  an  artist  who  was  accustomed  to  work- 
ing in  a  different  medium. 

It  must  have  been  while  he  was  in  Washington  that 
Bingham  painted  the  portrait  of  his  oldest  son,  Horace,  at  six 
years  of  age.  The  painting  represents  the  boy  asleep  in  a 
big  chair  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge  when  he  had  run  away 
from  home  to  his  father's  studio.    The  work  is  not  finished; 


>Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins. 
*Ibid. 


IN  PHILADELPHIA  AND  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  31 

for  it  is  said  that  the  artist  began  it  when  he  discovered  the 
child  asleep,  and  he  was  never  able  to  get  the  exact  pose  again.^ 
With  the  exception  of  six  months  spent  in  Petersburg, 
Virginia,  Bingham  remained  in  Washington  nearly  four  years.^ 
It  would  seem  probable  that  he  visited  Missouri  in  that  time, 
but  we  have  no  record  of  any  such  visits.  Portraits  of  two 
Missourians^  are  assigned  to  about  1842,  but  they  may  have 
been  painted  in  Washington,  or  even  two  years  later  in 
Missouri. 


«MIss  Laura  Rollins  King. 

^Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union,  Aug.,  1849,  pp.  10-12. 
•See  appendix. 


32 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY  (1844-56). 

In  1844  Bingham  returned  to  his  old  home  in  Saline 
County^  to  engage  in  a  serious  study  of  the  people  and  the  life 
that  he  had  been  familiar  with  in  earlier  years.  He  had  been 
successful  in  a  financial  way  with  his  portrait  painting,  and  he 
now  felt  able  to  spend  a  part  of  his  time  at  a  less  lucrative, 
but  to  him  a  more  attractive  work,  genre  painting,  in  the 
representation  of  the  unique  western  life.  It  was  this  work 
that  gained  for  him  the  title  of  "The  Missouri  Artist,"  ever 
afterward  applied  to  him. 

The  first  accounts  we  have  of  paintings  by  Bingham  in 
this  field  are  in  the  American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1845.^ 
These  consist  of  mere  notices  of  the  subjects  of  the  pictures 
and  the  names  and  addresses  of  the  members  of  the  Art 
Union  to  whom  they  were  allotted.^  Unfortunately,  we  are 
not  able  to  trace  these  paintings  beyond  the  first  owners,  nor 
to  find  any  description  of  them.  The  first  one  mentioned 
here,  Fur  Traders  Descending  the  Missouri,  won  by  Robert 
S.  Bunker,  Mobile,  Alabama,^  announces  the  general  character 
of  our  artist's  early  genre  subjects;  for  he  was  first  attracted 
by  the  life  of  the  western  boatmen,  that  unique  class  of  people 
no  longer  seen.  They  were  a  distinct  and  interesting  people 
in  their  manners  and  in  their  dress.    Rough  life  on  the  treacher- 

iDr.  Oscar  F.  Potter,  St.  Louis,  an  old  friend  of  Bingham's,  states  that  he 
knew  Bingham  in  Arrow  Rock  in  1844.  In  the  American  Art  Union  Trans- 
actions Bingham  is  registered  as  a  member  from  St.  Louis  in  the  years  1845  and 
*46;  in  1847  he  is  registered  from  Arrow  Rock. 

^American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1845,  p.  29. 

'For  an  explanation  of  the  American  Art  Union  see  p.  33/. 

^American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1845,  p.  29,  No.  93. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  33 


ous  rivers  gave  them  a  hardy  character  and  a  sense  of  comrade- 
ship which  can  be  felt  only  by  people  closely  associated  under 
circumstances  of  danger  and  daring.^  It  was  this  spirit  of 
jovial  comradeship,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  works  of  this  period 
preserved  to  us,  that  Bingham  liked  to  represent. 

Three  other  paintings  by  Bingham  mentioned  in  the 
American  Art  Union  record  of  this  year,  1845,  are  The  Con- 
cealed Enemy,  which  fell  to  the  lot  of  James  A.  Hutchison  of 
Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania;  Cottage  Scenery,  to  James  D. 
Carhart,  Macon,  Georgia;  and  Landscape,  to  James  Thompson, 
22  Dey  Street,  New  York  City.^  The  last  two  are  types  of 
subjects  seldom  treated  by  Bingham,  particularly  in  his 
early  career. 

Jolly  Flatboatmen,  the  first  well-known  work  of  the 
artist,  must  have  been  painted  as  early  as  1845;  for  a  copy  of 
an  engraving^  of  the  painting  appears  as  a  frontispiece  in 
the  American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1846,  together  with  an 
announcement  of  the  distribution  of  the  engraving  to  be  made 
to  the  members  of  the  Art  Union  in  the  following  year.^ 
This  American  Art  Union  was  an  organization  incorporated 
by  the  Legislature  of  New  York,  which  had  for  its  purpose  the 
promotion  of  Fine  Arts  in  the  United  States,  the  encourage- 
ment of  native  artists  and  the  diffusion  of  American  art 
through  the  country.  Membership  was  obtained  upon  the 
payment  of  five  dollars,  and  this  fee  was  used  to  pay  for 

'Col.  R.  B.  Price. 

^American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1845,  p.  29,  Nos.  95,  98  and  102. 

•Engraving  (24x19  in.)  made  by  T.  Doney:  American  Art  Union  Trans- 
actions for  1847,  p.  6.  See  also  Supplementary  Bulletin  of  the  American  Art 
Union,  Dec.,  1852,  p.  8,  No.  404. 

^American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1846,  p.  13.  Reference  to  the  fact 
that  the  distribution  had  been  made  appears  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Union  for 
August,  1849,  in  a  long  article  concerning  the  work  and  life  of  Bingham.  The 
length  of  this  discussion  in  what  was  then  the  leading  art  magazine  of  the 
country  shows  no  small  amount  of  interest  in  the  "Missouri  Artist." 
3 


34 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


engravings  of  one  or  more  American  paintings  and  to  purchase 
as  many  works  of  art  as  possible  in  both  painting  and  sculpture 
by  native  or  resident  artists.  (The  Art  Union  bought  only 
pictures  exhibited  at  its  gallery,  497  Broadway,  New  York, 
and  approved  by  a  committee.)  Each  member  received  at 
least  one  engraving  in  the  year,  and  every  five-dollar  share 
he  owned  also  gave  him  a  chance  of  obtaining  works  in 
painting  and  sculpture  which  were  distributed  by  lot.  Editors 
of  the  leading  papers  all  over  the  country  were  made  honorary 
secretaries,  and  shares  could  be  purchased  through  them.  In 
1849  the  membership  numbered  more  than  ten  thousand,  and 
the  Union  was  planning  a  distribution  of  Cole's  Youth,  the 
second  in  his  series  of  the  Voyage  of  Life,  and  also  a  volume  of 
etchings  illustrating  Irving's  tale  of  the  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hol- 
low.^ The  engraving  of  the  Jolly  Flathoatmen  by  the  Union, 
therefore,  insured  for  it  a  wide  circulation  which  created  interest 
all  over  the  country  in  the  work  of  the  young  "Missouri 
Artist."  The  painting  became  the  property  of  B.  Van 
Schaick  of  New  York  in  1847.^  A  list  of  paintings  in  Bing- 
ham's studio  in  1879  included  "the  Jolly  Flathoatmen,  which 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  having  been  published 
by  the  American  Art  Union  of  New  York,  first  brought  Mr. 
Bingham  prominently  before  the  artists  and  admirers  of  art 
of  our  own  and  other  countries."^  Probably  this  is  the  paint- 
ing which  was  purchased  at  the  sale  of  the  Bingham  estate  in 
1893''  and  is  now  owned  by  Mrs.  Thomas  H.  Mastin  of  Kansas 
City  (PL  XVIII).  It  is  done  in  the  style  of  the  earliest  of 
Bingham's  other  genre  paintings  which  we  know;^  but  it 

^Missouri  Statesman,  July  6,  1849. 

^American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1847,  p.  32,  No.  1. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Mar.  7,  1879. 
«See  p.  107. 

•The  light,  flat  and  unnatural  color  agrees  closely  with  the  early  pieces  o 
the  "election  series"  (see  p.  53ff). 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY. 


35 


differs  so  markedly  from  the  engraving  that  it  would  appear 
to  be  an  early  replica.  It  represents  a  flatboat  floating  down 
the  river  with  a  party  of  jolly  boatmen  on  it.  They  have 
pulled  up  the  long  oars  and  are  letting  the  boat  drift  with  the 
gentle  current.  There  are  seven  men  on  board,  each  with  a 
distinctive  attitude  and  character.  One  young  fellow  stands 
on  the  highest  part  of  the  boat  dancing  gaily,  while  an  older 
man  plays  a  fiddle,  a  boy  beats  a  tin  pan,  and  the  rest  look 
on  with  varying  degrees  of  interest.  Nearly  all  of  the  figures 
used  are  copied  almost  exactly  from  the  artist's  sketchbook 
now  in  the  Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis.  There  is  a  vigorous 
life  and  sparkle  about  the  whole  work.  We  do  not  feel  that 
the  figures  have  been  posing  for  hours,  but  it  seems  as  if  the 
boat  had  just  drifted  into  view  and  the  artist  had  caught  the 
attitude  of  the  whole  group  in  a  moment.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  Bingham  never  saw  this  exact  scene.  He  often  made 
rapid  sketches  of  attitudes  and  then  had  a  model  stand  in  the 
position  for  more  careful  drawing.  One  man  whom  he  used 
for  a  model  tells  of  dressing  according  to  directions  and  stand- 
ing in  one  position  without  moving  for  half  an  hour  at  a  time. 
Only  his  own  boyish  interest  in  the  artist's  work,  he  declares, 
gave  him  the  patience  for  the  task.^  From  these  drawings 
Bingham  built  up  his  compositions,  and  he  shows  no  little 
skill  in  their  arrangement.  Here,  in  the  Jolly  Flathoatmen, 
he  has  chosen  a  pyramidal  effect.  From  the  men  sitting  on 
the  oars  at  the  right  and  left  the  eye  is  led  up  by  the  fiddler  and 
drummer  to  the  center  of  interest,  the  dancer,  who  forms  the 
apex  of  the  pyramid.  The  mistake  of  placing  the  figures  on 
opposite  sides  on  the  same  levels  or  in  the  same  attitudes  is 
not  made ;  each  figure  is  entirely  different  from  all  the  others. 
The  steep  banks  of  the  river,  covered  with  shrubbery,  lend  a 

>Dr.  Oscar  F.  Potter. 


36 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


charming  touch,  and  those  away  in  the  distance  which  we  see 
at  the  bend  of  the  river  are  properly  subordinated  in  the  hazy 
atmosphere.  A  good  feeHng  for  perspective  is  shown,  the 
water  lies  perfectly  flat  and  everything  takes  its  proper  place  in 
the  picture.  The  coloring  is  not  positive,  but  it  is  harmonious. 
The  predominant  tone  is  blue — the  blue  of  the  sky  and  its 
reflection  in  the  quiet  water.  As  stated  above,  the  engraving 
(PI.  XIX)  published  by  the  Art  Union  exhibits  a  number  of 
variations  from  the  painting  owned  by  Mrs.  Mastin.  Most 
of  the  figures  are  slightly  different;  for  example,  the  dancer 
does  not  wave  his  red  handkerchief  and  the  drummer  wears 
a  differently  fashioned  hat;  an  eighth  figure,  too,  is  at  the  back 
of  the  group.  More  careful  attempts  have  been  made  at 
filling  out  the  space;  a  shirt  hung  in  the  sun  to  dry,  a  coil  of 
rope,  a  ladder  and  a  small  animal  skin  have  been  placed  on 
the  front  part  of  the  boat's  deck.  There  are  two  sketches  for 
the  drummer  in  Bingham's  sketchbook.  One  of  them  corre- 
sponds to  the  figure  in  the  painting  (PI.  XX,  2) ;  but  the  other 
corresponds  as  perfectly  to  the  figure  in  the  engraving.  This 
is  true  also  of  the  fiddler  (PI.  XX,  3),  and  the  sketch  we 
reproduce  of  the  man  seated  on  an  oar  at  the  right  (PI.  XX,  1) 
corresponds  to  the  figure  in  the  engraving.  Together  with  the 
facts  that  the  eighth  figure  in  the  engraving  is  thoroughly 
Binghamesque,  that  Bingham  frequently  repeated  composi- 
tions with  slight  changes  and  that  the  picture  bought  by  the 
Art  Union  came  into  the  possession  of  a  New  York  resident, 
this  proves  quite  conclusively  that  all  this  change  was  not  made 
by  the  engraver  and  that  the  painting  owned  by  Mrs.  Mastin  is 
not  the  one  from  which  the  engraving  was  made.  Mrs. 
Mastin's  painting  is  probably  the  later  one  of  the  two;  the 
most  important  part  of  the  composition  is  repeated  in  it,  while 
many  of  the  details  are  omitted.    Further,  the  characteristics 


Plate  XX 


Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis 

SKETCHES  USED  IN  JOLLY  FLATBOATMEN 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  37 


of  the  figures  in  Mrs.  Mastin's  painting  rather  than  those  in 
the  other  are  used  again  in  the  Jolly  Flathoatmen  No.  2, 
painted  a  number  of  years  later.  So  it  would  seem  that  Bing- 
ham considered  it  an  improvement  upon  the  one  from  which 
the  engraving  was  made. 

In  1846  two  other  paintings  by  Bingham  were  listed  by 
the  American  Art  Union/  but  no  description  is  given  and  we 
find  no  further  records  of  them.  They  are  Boatmen  on  the 
Missouri,  which  in  the  regular  distribution  of  the  Union  went 
to  J.  R.  Macmurdo,  New  Orleans,  and  Landscape  with  Cattle, 
to  Charles  Wilkes,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Bingham's  mingling  with  his  countrymen  and  his  interest 
in  all  their  activities,  particularly  politics,  in  which  he  always 
took  a  positive  stand,  soon  brought  upon  him  the  necessity 
of  political  service.  He  was  by  no  means  an  office-seeker; 
but  he  had  such  positive  ideas  as  to  party  platforms  that  the 
Whigs,  among  whom  he  counted  himself,  saw  in  him  a  leader 
who  would  stand  by  his  convictions  under  all  circumstances. 
A  statement  made  concerning  him  in  these  early  days  is  to  the 
point:  "Mr.  Bingham  is  not  only  a  faithful  painter  of 
'the  human  face  divine,'  but  he  also  has  powers  of  exposing  on 
the  stump  and  canvas  the  monstrosities  of  Loco-Focoism. 
He  is  a  Whig  'dyed  in  the  wool.'  And  when  he  was  called 
upon  in  1846  to  become  a  Whig  candidate  to  represent  his 
county  in  the  State  Legislature,  his  desire  to  promote  the 
principles  which  he  believed  right  led  him  to  accept  the  nomi- 
nation. The  election  returns  gave  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  votes  for  him  and  four  hundred  and  seventy  for  Sapping- 
ton,  his  Democratic  opponent,  and  he  was  declared  elected. 
He  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  he 


^American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1846,  p.  31,  No.  14,  and  p.  34,  No.  131. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  June  19,  1846. 


38 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


was  placed  upon  the  standing  committees  for  Federal  Relations 
and  Engrossed  Bills.  He  also  served  on  a  number  of  special 
committees.^ 

His  keen  sense  of  humor  did  not  forsake  him  even  in 
such  a  dignified  assemblage.  Soon  after  the  convening  of  the 
House,  in  the  animated  discussion  which  took  place  upon  the 
question  of  printing  a  thousand  German  copies  of  the  Gover- 
nor's message  to  the  House,  Bingham  concurred  with  the  mem- 
ber who  had  proposed  the  printing  of  the  message,  saying  that 
he  believed  in  affording  to  the  Dutch  every  reasonable  facility 
for  obtaining  light,  that  he  was  in  large  part  a  Dutchman 
himself  and  was  in  favor  of  the  Dutch.  He  also  argued  that 
it  was  an  economical  measure;  for  the  message  of  the  Governor 
was  all  that  they  could  need.  If  it  were  read  with  under- 
standing by  them,  all  other  knowledge  would  be  superfluous. 
It  was  a  godsend,  being  an  abstract  of  all  knowledge,  the 
essence  of  all  wisdom,  the  document  of  all  documents  calcu- 
lated to  enlighten  the  human  mind,  particularly  the  mind 
of  the  Dutch .2 

But  soon  after  he  had  entered  the  Legislature,  his  seat 
was  contested  by  his  opponent  on  the  ground  that  it  had  been 
obtained  by  means  of  illegal  votes.  Bingham  cared  little 
enough  for  the  personal  honor  attached  to  the  office  to  have 
given  it  up  rather  than  go  through  the  unpleasant  trial;  but 
he  felt  that  he  owed  it  to  the  people  who  had  elected  him  to 
defend  their  rights.  He  attempted  by  the  most  honorable 
means  to  avoid  the  trial.  He  wrote  to  Sappington  and  sug- 
gested to  him  in  a  respectful  manner  that  they  dispense  with 
the  "laborious,  expensive  and  unequal  contest  in  the  Legis- 
lature" by  again  submitting  their  claims  to  the  people,  which 

^Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  14th  General 
Assembly,  pp.  34,  114,  135. 

*Missouri  Statesman,  Nov.  27,  1846. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  39 

he  said  he  believed  to  be  the  only  genuinely  republican  method, 
pledging  himself  that  if  he  should  be  defeated  by  as  much  as 
one  vote,  he  would  vacate  the  seat  to  which  he  had  been  de- 
clared duly  elected  without  an  appeal  to  any  other  tribunal. 
But  his  opponent  refused  to  accept  such  a  proposition,^ 
choosing  rather  to  entrust  the  decision  to  a  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives largely  Democratic — seventy-seven  Democrats  and 
twenty-three  Whigs.  Or  was  it,  as  he  contended,  because  he 
conceived  it  to  be  his  duty  to  those  who  he  believed  had 
honestly  elected  him  to  protect  their  rights?  Whatever  may 
have  been  his  reasons  for  rejecting  Bingham's  proposal,  the 
odds  most  certainly  were  against  Bingham  in  the  legislative 
body. 

Sappington  employed  Attorney-General  B.  F.  String- 
fellow,  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  able  lawyers  in  Missouri, 
for  his  counsel.  But  Bingham  served  as  his  own  attorney,  and 
by  his  able  management  proved  that  his  early  study  of  law  in 
the  cabinet-maker's  shop  in  Boonville  had  been  an  earnest 
and  serious  one.  He  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  and  money  in 
gathering  evidence  for  the  contest,  and  his  opponent  was 
equally  active.  The  case  was  thoroughly  investigated  by  the 
Committee  on  Elections.  That  body  could  not  come  to  a 
unanimous  agreement  at  the  close  of  the  examination  of  the 
evidence.  But  a  majority  of  them  decided  that  Bingham  had 
received  five  illegal  votes  and  Sappington  eight ;  and  since  the 
election  returns  had  given  Bingham  a  majority  of  three,  the 
majority  of  the  committee  decided  that  he  had  actually  been 
elected  by  a  margin  of  six  votes.  At  a  second  meeting  of  the 
committee  one  of  the  members  changed  his  decision  so  that 
the  vote  stood:    three  that  Bingham  was  elected,  two  that 


^Letters  written  Sept.  8  and  published  in  the  Missouri  Statesman,  Oct.  2, 
1846. 


40 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


Sappington  was  elected,  and  two  that  it  was  a  tie.  And  the 
committee  adjourned  with  the  agreement  that  such  should  be 
the  decision  rendered  to  the  House  and  that  it  should  be 
submitted  in  three  different  reports.  The  reports  actually 
made  to  the  House,  however,  were  three  for  Bingham,  three 
for  Sappington,  and  one  that  the  vote  was  a  tie.  That  one 
member  had  again  changed  his  mind.^ 

After  the  evidence  had  been  presented  to  the  House, 
General  Stringfellow  made  a  speech  lasting  several  hours. 
He  was  followed  by  Bingham,  who  was  equally  lengthy  and 
certainly  as  biting  as  anyone  could  well  be  in  the  character- 
istic speech  to  which  he  gave  vent.^  As  usual,  he  felt  that  so 
long  as  he  was  saying  what  he  believed  to  be  truthful,  there 
was  no  need  for  leniency.  A  newspaper  report  in  regard  to 
the  speech  says:  "He  'salted  down'  the  whole  Sappington 
family,  Ex-Lt.  Gov.  Marmaduke  (who  was  present)  and  the 
Attorney-General.  He  scattered  the  red-hot  shot  in  every 
direction,  and  after  getting  through  with  the  comments 
concerning  one  vote,  he  gave  way  to  a  motion  to  adjourn."^ 
For  three  days  the  House  took  up  the  consideration  of  the 
contest  at  every  meeting,  and,  finally,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
December,  declared  Sappington  elected.  Much  dissatis- 
faction was  felt  in  regard  to  the  decision,  which  seemed  to 
many  to  have  been  made  upon  party  prejudices  rather  than 
upon  the  evidence  of  the  case."* 

Though  stung  to  the  quick  by  what  he  deemed  unfair 
treatment,  Bingham  did  not  regret  the  loss  of  the  position  for 
its  own  sake.    He  went  back  to  his  home  and  again  took  up 

I  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Mo.,  14th  General 
Assembly,  appendix,  pp.  221-238. 

'Speech  published  in  the  Missouri  Statesman,  Jan.  22,  1847. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Dec.  25,  1846. 
*Ibid.,  Dec.  25,  1846.    Mr.  O.  B.  Rollins. 


Plate  XXI 


Athenaeum  Museum,  Pitts  field 

RAFTSMEN  PLAYING  CARDS 


X 

w 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY. 


41 


his  chosen  work,  better  prepared  for  it  than  before  because  his 
"stumping"  experiences  during  the  campaign  had  given  him 
many  opportunities  for  observing  the  lives  of  his  western 
countrymen  in  their  poHtical  phases. 

In  1847  a  newspaper^  describes  two  of  Bingham's  paintings 
then  on  display  in  the  rooms  of  Mr.  Wool  on  Fourth  Street, 
St.  Louis,  pictures  representative  of  western  river  life.  One 
of  these,  Lighter  Relieving  a  Steamboat  Aground,  had  been 
purchased  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  by  Mr.  Yeatman 
of  St.  Louis,  who  granted  the  artist  the  privilege  of  sending 
it  with  the  other  painting  to  the  Art  Union.  In  the  distance, 
aground  on  a  sandbar,  is  a  steamboat  which  has  just  been 
relieved  of  a  portion  of  its  cargo  and  the  lighter  or  flatboat 
has  been  pushed  out  into  the  current,  which  carries  it  along 
without  the  use  of  oars  or  rudders.  The  flatboatmen  are 
amusing  themselves,  some  by  listening  to  a  tale  of  adventure 
told  by  one  of  their  number,  others  by  indulging  in  the  contents 
of  the  jug  and  the  pipe.  The  newspaper  further  states  that 
the  characters  are  in  their  countenances,  dress  and  attitudes 
''true  to  the  life."  Perhaps  this  is  the  same  painting  as  the 
one  allotted  by  the  American  Art  Union  in  1849  to  Stephen 
E.  Paine,  New  York,  and  listed  under  the  title  of  Watching 
the  Cargo.^  It  is  described  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Union  as  a 
painting,  thirty-six  by  twenty-six  inches,  representing  ''a 
group  of  boatmen  on  the  Missouri  River,  keeping  watch  over 
the  cargo  of  a  boat  which  has  been  wrecked.  A  box  has  been 
opened  and  its  contents  spread  out  to  dry."^  The  other 
painting  mentioned  in  the  St.  Louis  paper  referred  to  above 
was  called  Raftsmen  Playing  Cards.  It  was  considered  by  a 
critic  who  saw  the  two  together  to  be  the  better  one.  Again 


^St.  Louis  Republican,  April  21,  1847. 

^Transactions  of  the  American  Art  Union  for  1849,  p.  50,  No.  227. 
'Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union,  Aug.-Nov.,  1849,  No.  227. 


42 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


we  have  an  indication,  as  in  the  case  of  Jolly  Flathoatmen 
that  there  were  two  paintings  originally.  A  painting  (PI. 
XXI)  and  a  lithograph  (PI.  XXII)  represent  the  same  central 
theme,  but  they  differ  a  good  deal  in  detail.  The  location  of 
the  painting  from  which  the  lithograph  was  made  is  not  known, 
and  we  have  no  data  by  which  to  form  a  definite  decision  as 
to  which  of  the  two  was  the  earlier.  The  description  in  the 
newspaper,  however,  agrees  more  closely  with  the  lithograph, 
which  is  usually  called  In  a  Quandary.  'The  other  and,  in 
our  opinion,  the  better  picture  is  a  group  on  a  raft,  floating 
with  the  current.  Two  men  are  playing  a  game  of  cards 
well  known  in  the  West  as  three-up.  Seated  astride  a  bench, 
one  has  the  ace  and  the  other  is  extremely  puzzled  to  know 
what  to  play  upon  it.  As  often  occurs,  he  has  two  friends  on 
either  side  of  him,  each  of  whom  is  giving  advice  as  to  which 
card  he  ought  to  play."  In  the  lithograph  there  are  just  four 
figures,  the  oars  are  pulled  up  and  the  raft  is  floating  with  the 
current.  The  painting  hangs  in  the  Athenaeum  Museum  in 
Pittsfield,  Massachusetts.  It  was  presented  to  the  museum 
as  the  work  of  an  unknown  artist ;  but  a  comparison  of  it  with 
other  of  Bingham's  works,  together  with  the  consideration 
that  he  often  used  the  same  figures  in  different  pictures,  leaves 
no  doubt  as  to  the  authorship.  The  two  card-players  and  the 
on-looker  at  the  right  are  almost  identical  with  the  group  in 
the  lithograph  and  with  the  figures  in  the  sketchbook  (PI. 
XXIII,  2  and  3).  The  dejected  figure  on  the  floor  at  the 
extreme  left  is  also  a  close  copy  of  one  in  the  sketchbook 
(PI.  XXIII,  1),  and  it  is  used  again  later  in  Jolly  Flathoatmen 
No.  2.  The  man  standing  behind  the  players  is  somewhat 
changed,  and  he  has  given  up  his  pole  to  the  boy  who  is  guiding 
the  boat.  The  men  are  placed  farther  back  from  the  fore- 
ground, a  few  of  the  accessories  about  the  boat  are  altered,  and 


Plate  XXIII 


Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis 

SKETCHES  USED  IN  RAFTSMEN  PLAYING  CARDS 


Plate  XXIV 


City  Art  Museum,  St.  Louis 

DR.  OSCAR  F.  POTTER 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY. 


43 


the  whole  composition  is  more  complicated.  The  method, 
frequently  employed  in  Bingham's  compositions  a  few  years 
later,  of  building  up  a  large  mass  at  one  side  of  the  picture  and 
a  much  smaller  mass  at  the  other  is  here  carried  out  more 
fully  than  in  the  lithograph,  and  the  whole  is  freer;  so  that  it 
would  seem  that  the  Pittsfield  picture  is  the  later  of  the  two, 
A  painting  of  the  same  title.  Raftsmen  Playing  Cards,  was 
awarded  by  the  Art  Union  in  1847  to  Edwin  Crosswell  of 
Albany,  New  York.  This  was  probably  the  picture  referred 
to  by  the  above  newspaper  description,  for  the  same  news- 
paper, as  well  as  the  Art  Union  organ,  contains  later  a  notice 
of  the  transaction  by  which  the  painting  came  into  the  hands 
of  Edwin  Crosswell.^  The  lithograph  is  dated  1852.  Aside 
from  this  dating,  the  copy  that  hangs  in  the  Missouri  Union 
Building  bears  upon  it  this  inscription:  '*In  a  Quandary. 
Lithographed  by  Regnier.  To  Major  James  S.  Rollins  of 
Missouri  this  print  is  respectfully  dedicated  by  his  most 
obedient  servant  Goupil  and  Company." 

The  portrait  of  Dr.  Oscar  F.  Potter  (PI.  XXIV),  now 
living  in  St.  Louis,  who  was  Bingham's  model  for  a  good  many 
of  his  figures,  was  painted  in  1848  shortly  after  In  a  Quandary, 
in  which  he  posed  for  the  man  with  the  pole  and  also  the  one  at 
the  right  with  the  bare  feet.  The  portrait  represents  the 
young  man  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  not  of  a  robust  physique, 
but  with  a  contemplative  and  intelligent  face.  The  work 
shows  some  advance  over  earlier  portraiture  by  the  artist 
in  the  freer  treatment  of  features  and  in  the  rendition  of  the 
texture  of  the  flesh,  hair  and  clothing.  We  are  unable  to 
notice  any  close  resemblance  between  the  portrait  and  the 
figures  in  the  flatboat  scene  for  which  the  youth  served  as  a 


^American  Art  Union  Transactions  for  1847,  p.  36,  No.  91.  St.  Louis 
Republican,  Jan.  10,  1848. 


44 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


model,  except,  perhaps,  in  the  case  of  the  man  with  the  pole, 
whose  face  and,  more  particularly,  hair  are  similar  to  the  face 
and  hair  of  the  portrait. 

A  painting  called  Stump  Orator  by  Bingham  was  among 
those  distributed  by  the  Art  Union  in  1848.  It  was  allotted 
to  William  Duncan,  Savannah,  Georgia.^  We  know  nothing 
more  of  it,  but  it  is  of  interest  to  us  as  being  the  first  notice 
we  have  of  the  political  subject  in  Bingham's  paintings. 
This  phase  was  soon  to  become  very  important  in  his  work  as 
he  came  more  and  more  into  contact  with  it  in  actual  life. 

In  the  summer  of  1848  he  was  called  upon  a  second  time 
by  the  leading  Whigs  of  his  county  to  accept  the  nomination 
for  the  Representative  of  Saline  in  the  State  Legislature.  He 
at  first  refused.  But  a  little  later,  when  E.  D.  Sappington  was 
announced  as  the  Democratic  candidate,  Bingham  was  ready 
to  take  up  the  fight  against  his  old  opponent;  but  this  time  he 
was  elected  by  such  a  majority — twenty-six — that  there  was 
no  danger  of  a  contest  before  the  Legislature.^  Upon  the 
convening  of  the  House,  Bingham  was  again  appointed,  as  he 
had  been  in  1846,  upon  the  Committee  on  Federal  Relations 
and  also  upon  the  Committee  on  Enrolled  Bills.  Aside  from 
these  two  standing  committees  he  again  served  on  a  large 
number  of  special  committees.  He  spoke  rarely  in  the  ses- 
sions; but  when  he  did  speak,  it  was  with  firm  decision  and 
absolute  fearlessness.^  He  could  not  countenance  anything 
which  he  believed  to  be  injustice  to  anyone.  Upon  one 
occasion  his  indignation  was  thoroughly  aroused  by  a  report 
submitted  to  the  House  by  the  Inspectors  of  the  Penitentiary 
containing  a  passage  derogatory  to  the  characters  of  the 

^Transactions  of  the  American  Art  Union  for  1848,  p.  62,  No.  212. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  May  12,  July  7  and  Aug.  11,  1848. 
^Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  1848, 
pp.  33,  43,  49,  etc. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  45 

volunteers  who  had  enHsted  in  the  Mexican  War.  The  report 
accounted  for  the  vacancies  in  the  State  Penitentiary  by  the 
employment  of  an  "idle  and  vicious"  class  of  people  in  the 
foreign  war,  adding  that  since  the  war  was  ended,  all  the 
prison  would  doubtless  soon  be  needed.  Bingham  had  felt 
from  the  first — and  he  had  clearly  announced  his  views  from 
the  "stump"  to  his  constituents — that  the  war  might  have 
been  honorably  avoided ;  but,  as  always,  he  held  that  the  will 
of  the  majority  should  rule  even  when  it  called  to  war.  And 
now,  upon  anyone  in  the  House  who  attempted  to  defend  the 
report  in  the  least  he  heaped  his  biting  indignation.^ 

His  most  important  commission  in  the  House,  however, 
was  that  of  serving  upon  the  Committee  on  Federal  Relations; 
for  in  this  turbulent  time  the  relations  between  the  northern 
and  southern  states  of  the  Union  raised  all-important  questions. 
When  the  resolutions  from  the  General  Assemblies  of  Virginia 
and  Florida,  together  with  the  Jackson  Resolutions,  were 
presented  to  the  committee  for  its  consideration,  Bingham  was 
one  of  the  four  who  drew  up  the  majority  report,  in  which 
sentiment  was  expressed  against  the  interference  of  Congress 
in  the  regulation  of  slave  ownership  in  the  states;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  the  rights  of  Congress  in  the  matter  were  recog- 
nized, and  faith  and  confidence  in  that  body  were  expressed. 
This  majority  pledged  themselves  to  stand  by  the  Union, 
"come  what  may,  whether  prosperity  or  adversity,  weal  or 
woe,"  preferring  the  "glorious  Union  even  with  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  to  its  dissolution  without  it."^  And  never  in  all  the 
long  struggle  did  Bingham  once  prove  traitor  to  his  pledge. 
Fifteen  years  later  it  was  said  by  some  of  his  friends  that  his 


^Missouri  Statesman,  Jan.  19,  1849. 

^Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Missouri.  1848. 
Majority  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Federal  Relations,  p.  392. 


46 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


great  speech  against  secession  was  the  first  defiant  utterance 
against  rebelHon  in  the  Capitol  of  Missouri.^ 

In  August  and  probably  until  the  latter  part  of  Sep- 
tember in  1849,  Bingham  was  in  New  York.  He  had  a  studio 
at  115J^  Grand  Street,  and  attention  was  called  by  the  Art 
Union  to  his  portfolio  of  sketches  which  might  be  seen  by 
visitors.  Evidently  he  had  not  given  up  his  art  work  entirely 
while  in  the  Legislature;  for  the  Art  Union  had  lately  purchased 
one  of  his  "clever  pictures"  and  expected  to  have  one  or  two 
•more  by  him  upon  exhibition  in  the  course  of  that  month, 
August.2  Indeed,  we  come  upon  quite  a  list  of  paintings  just 
at  this  time.  Their  present  location  is  unknown,  but  the 
descriptions  given  of  some  of  them,  though  very  brief,  help 
us  to  form  some  idea  of  their  general  nature  and  also  give  us  a 
glimpse  of  Bingham's  treatment  of  some  phases  of  Missouri 
life  which  we  otherwise  should  have  failed  to  know. 

Three  paintings  are  described  in  a  newspaper  of  1849,^ 
one  of  them  a  scene  on  the  Missouri  called  Woodyard.  "The 
owner  of  the  yard  and  his  laborers  are  awaiting  the  arrival 
of  a  boat,  and  their  anxiety  to  make  a  sale  of  their  wood  is 
strikingly  delineated."  The  name  of  the  second  one  is  not 
given,  but  from  its  description:  "It  is  the  first  painting  we 
have  seen  in  which  the  real  characteristics  of  the  boatmen  on 
the  wharf  are  truly  portrayed,"  we  may  conclude  that  it  is 
the  painting  that  is  listed  in  the  Transactions  of  the  American 
Art  Union  for  the  year  1849*  as  St.  Louis  Wharf,  awarded  to 
S.  Pell,  New  York.  This  painting  is  further  described  in  the 
Bulletin  of  the  Union  as  follows:  "(30x25)  On  the  wharf  are 

^Kansas  City  Star,  Oct,  6,  1901. 

'Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union,  Aug..  1849.  The  "clever  picture" 
here  referred  to  is  evidently  Raftsmen  on  the  Ohio,  which  is  listed  in  this  number 
of  the  Bulletin  and  which  we  discuss  below. 

*St.  Louis  Republican,  Apr.  7,  1849. 

^Transactions  — ,  1849,  p.  50,  No.  218. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  47 

piles  of  merchandise  upon  which  are  seated  boatmen  and 
travelers;  behind  them  are  teamsters,  and  beside  the  levee  is 
a  steamboat,  the  'Kit  Carson.'  The  third  painting  men- 
tioned in  the  newspaper  is  a  scene  in  a  barroom.  A  politician 
is  discoursing  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso  to  the  jolly  old  landlord 
and  an  indifferent  farmer;  "a  boy  with  his  coat-tail  turned  up 
to  the  stove  is  reading  a  show  bill."  This  is  undoubtedly 
the  painting  which  the  Art  Union  awarded  to  John  Boyd, 
Winstead,  Connecticut,  in  1849  and  listed  as  County  Politician. 
It  is  described  as  a  painting  twenty-four  by  twenty  inches. 
"Three  men  are  seated  around  a  stove,  one  of  whom  is  arguing 
some  knotty  point  with  an  old  traveler.  Behind  the  stove  a 
man  is  standing  warming  his  back  with  his  coat-skirts  lifted."^ 

A  Boatman,  which  through  the  Art  Union  went  to  "J," 
Albany,  New  York,  is  described  briefly  as  a  painting  twenty  by 
sixteen  inches,  representing  ''a  figure  seated  beside  a  pile  of 
wood,  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri."^  One  other  painting. 
Raftsmen  on  the  Ohio,  thirty-nine  by  thirty-six  inches,  was 
among  the  distributions  of  the  Art  Union  in  1849.  It  went  to 
James  Key,  Florence,  Alabama,  and  the  description  of  it  is: 
"A  man  seated  on  a  box  is  telling  a  story  to  three  others  as 
they  are  'floating  down  the  Ohio.'  In  the  foreground  on  the 
raft  are  packs  of  shingles,  boards  and  so  forth. 

Other  pictures  of  which  we  have  but  slight  mention 
anywhere  are  Old  Field  Horse,  listed  in  Tuckerman's  Book  of 
the  Artists  as  belonging  to  the  McGuire  collection  in  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  Lumbermen  Dining,  referred  to  in  the  St.  Louis 

^Bulletin  — ,  Aug. -Nov.,  1849.  No.  218. 
^Transactions  — ,  1849,  p.  50,  No.  232. 
Bulletin — ,  Aug.-Nov.,  1849,  No.  232. 
^Transactions  —  for  1849,  p.  51,  No.  241. 
Bulletin  — ,  Aug.-Nov.,  1849,  No.  241. 
^Transactions  —  for  1849,  p.  49,  No.  196. 
Bulletin  — ,  Aug.-Nov.,  1849,  No.  196. 


48 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


Republican  of  November  27  and  November  28,  1847,  and 
The  Horse  Thief,  mentioned  by  Miss  Simonds.^ 

Two  paintings  owned  by  the  art  firm,  McCaughen  and 
Burr  of  St.  Louis,  called  Captured  hy  Indians  and  Belated 
Wayfarers  are  signed  and  dated.  The  first  is  dated  1848  and 
the  second  1852.  There  is  some  doubt  as  to  the  authenticity 
of  these,^  and  the  signature  and  dating  rather  increase  the 
doubt;  for  we  know  of  no  other  painting  signed  and  dated  by 
Bingham.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that  he  may  have 
painted  some  Indian  scenes,  since  such  were  truly  a  part  of 
early  western  life.  These  are  undoubtedly  the  pictures  to 
which  Miss  Simonds  refers  as  White  Women  Stolen  hy  Indians 
and  Emigrants  Resting  at  Night.  Both,  she  says,  are  night 
scenes  with  campfires.^ 

By  the  twenty-eighth  of  September,  1849,  Bingham  was 
in  Columbia,  Missouri,  working  upon  portraits,  among  them 
a  "fullsized"  representation  of  Dr.  Wm.  Jewell  of  William 
Jewell  College  at  Liberty,  Missouri.*  This  portrait  was  given 
by  the  will  of  Dr.  Jewell  upon  his  death  in  1852  to  William 
Jewell  College,  where  it  hangs  at  the  present  time  in  the 
entrance  to  the  library.  In  the  same  will  a  smaller  portrait, 
probably  painted  as  a  study  for  the  larger  one,  was  bequeathed 
to  Dr.  Jewell's  grandson.^  It  was  probably  during  this  same 
sojourn  in  Columbia  that  Bingham  painted  a  portrait  of  Dr. 
Lathrop,  President  of  the  University  of  Missouri.  In  the 
latter  part  of  1850  it  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  women  of 
Columbia  to  be  delivered  to  the  Board  of  Curators  of  the 
University  as  a  gift  from  the  artist  whenever  that  body  should 

•Simonds,  Miss  May,  A  Pioneer  Painter — published  in  the  American 
Illustrated  Methodist  Magazine,  v.  VIII,  Oct.,  1902. 

*Dr.  John  Pickard.    (The  writer  has  not  seen  the  pictures.) 
'Simonds,  Miss  May,  A  Pioneer  Painter. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Sept.  28,  1849. 
^Ibid.,  Aug.  20.  1852. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  49 

see  fit  to  call  for  it.  Whether  it  was  an  oversight  or  for  some 
other  reason,  the  work  was  not  called  for  until  nearly  nine 
years  later,  at  which  time  it  was  promptly  delivered  and  hung 
in  the  chapel  of  the  University.^  It  was  destroyed  in  the 
University  fire  of  1892. 

Bingham's  wife,  Elizabeth  Hutchison  Bingham,  had  died 
on  the  twenty-ninth  of  November,  1848,  leaving  him  with  three 
children,  a  daughter  and  two  sons.  Two  sons  had  died 
previous  to  the  wife's  death,  and  one  of  the  other  two  died 
soon  after.  December  2,  1849,  Bingham  was  married  to 
Eliza  K.  Thomas,  daughter  of  Professor  R.  S.  Thomas  of 
Columbia.  She  is  said  to  have  been  beautiful  and  intelligent 
and  an  excellent  mother  to  her  husband's  children.^ 

About  the  middle  of  the  following  year,  1850,  Bingham 
was  working  in  St.  Louis.  A  local  paper  gives  us  a  description 
of  a  painting  which  he  was  then  engaged  upon:  "Mr.  George 
C.  Bingham,  'the  Missouri  Artist,*  at  his  studio  in  this  place  is 
about  completing,  for  George  W.  Austen,  Esq.,  of  New  York, 
Treasurer  of  the  American  Art  Union,  one  of  the  choicest 
specimens  of  art  with  which  we  have  met.  It  is  of  rare  con- 
ception and  most  graphically  delineated.  The  painting 
represents  a  western  scene — Shooting  for  the  Beef — and  presents 
a  group  of  characters  with  life-like  fidelity.  There  are  seen 
the  eager  marksmen  in  the  attire  of  the  backwoodsman; 
the  log  cabin  at  the  cross-roads,  with  sign  above  the  door 
lintel.  Tost  Office  Grocery;'  the  prize  in  contest,  a  fat  ox, 
chained  to  a  stump  hard  by ;  a  beautiful  landscape  in  prospec- 
tive, and — but  a  description  is  impossible.  The  painting  is 
thirty-six  by  forty-nine  inches.    Every  feature  on  the  canvas 

^IMd.,  Dec.  27,  1850,  and  Aug.  12,  1859. 
»I6id.,  Dec.  29,  1848,  and  Dec.  7,  1849. 
Nefif,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 


4 


50 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


is  instinct  with  life.  Indeed  it  seems  an  incarnation  rather 
than  painting,  and  gives  us  reason  to  exult  in  the  genius  of 
Bingham,  a  native  Artist  of  our  own  state. Of  all  the 
contemporary  criticisms  we  have  of  Bingham  one  of  the  most 
fair,  because  untinged  by  local  prejudice,  is  made  by  the  Art 
Union  in  connection  with  this  painting:  ''Mr.  Bingham, 
the  Western  Artist — This  gentleman,  whose  success  in  delineat- 
ing western  scenes  and  characters,  and  particularly  the  boatmen 
of  the  Mississippi,  we  have  had  occasion  several  times  to 
mention,  has  lately  arrived  in  this  city,  where  he  intends  to 
remain  for  the  present.  He  brings  with  him  a  few  pictures, 
one  of  which,  representing  Shooting  for  the  Beef,  has  several 
striking  points.  Bingham's  chief  merit  is  his  decided  nation- 
ality and  accurate  reading  of  character.  His  works  have 
certain  faults  in  color  and  handHng,  which  we  think  his 
residence  here  will  enable  him  to  correct,  and  which,  by  the  way, 
are  much  less  conspicuous  than  his  want  of  advantages  would 
have  led  one  to  expect."^  The  painting.  Shooting  for  the  Beef, 
was  later  purchased  by  the  Art  Union  and  was  sold  at  auction 
along  with  many  other  paintings  after  the  Union's  former 
method  of  distribution  had  in  1852  been  declared  illegal  by 
New  York  courts  on  the  ground  that  it  was  in  contravention 
to  the  statutes  prohibiting  lotteries.^  We  have  no  record  of 
the  purchasers  at  this  sale. 

Other  paintings  by  Bingham  that  were  included  in  the 
Art  Union  auction  sale  and  of  which  we  have  no  records  or 
descriptions  further  than  those  contained  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
Art  Union  are,  with  their  descriptions,  as  follows:  ''Cattle 
Piece  (36x2634) — Oxen  and  cows  feeding  on  a  meadow." 

>From  a  St.  Louis  paper  copied  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union, 
July,  1850,  p.  64/. 

^Bulletin  — ,  Dec,  1850,  p.  157. 

^Supplementary  Bulletin  — ,  Dec,  1851,  and  Dec,  1852. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY. 


51 


Fishing  on  the  Mississippi  (36x26) — Three  men  are  stationed 
on  the  rocks  at  the  left,  engaged  in  this  sport.  A  flat-boat  is 
coming  down  the  stream."  ''The  Squatters  (30x25) — A 
family  has  built  its  log  cabin  in  the  midst  of  a  clearing,  and 
commenced  housekeeping."  ''The  Wood-Boat  (30x25) — The 
boat  is  drawn  up  to  the  shore.  The  boatmen  are  resting 
themselves  on  the  banks."  "Trapper's  Return  (36x26) — The 
figures  are  descending  the  river  in  a  dug-out,  at  the  bows  of 
which  is  a  bear  chained."^  These  paintings  were  all  listed  by 
the  Art  Union  in  1851,  so  they  were  probably  purchased  while 
Bingham  was  in  New  York  in  the  winter  of  1850-51. 

He  had  gone  to  New  York  in  the  latter  part  of  1850, 
and  he  returned  to  Columbia,  Missouri,  in  the  middle  of  May 
of  the  following  year.  During  his  absence  he  had  painted  his 
Daniel  Boone  Coming  Through  Cumberland  Gap,^  a  more  decid- 
edly historical  composition  than  he  had  previously  under- 
taken. The  event  celebrated  is  the  emigration  of  the  famous 
Daniel  Boone  with  his  family  from  North  Carolina  to  Ken- 
tucky. The  scene  is  laid  in  a  mountain  gap,  as  the  subject 
suggests,  and  the  dramatic,  grandiose  treatment  of  the  land- 
cape,  as  the  present  state  of  the  painting  shows  it  (PI.  XXV), 
suggests  that  the  artist  must  have  been  influenced  by  the 
early  Hudson  River  landscape  school.  We  are  reminded 
particularly  of  Thomas  Cole,  engravings  of  whose  Voyage  of 
Life  were  then  scattered  broadcast  over  the  country,  and  the 
originals  of  which  Bingham  may  have  seen  while  in  the  East. 
The  great  rocky  cliffs  on  each  side  with  the  mysterious  dark- 
ness back  under  their  projecting  crags,  the  blasted  tree  trunks, 
the  lowering  clouds  darkening  parts  of  the  sky  emphasize  the 
danger  of  the  undertaking  and  the  bravery  of  the  hero  of  the 

^Bulletin  — ,  May-Dec,  1851,  Nos.  52,  120,  130,  152,  173;  Supplementary 
Bulletin  — ,  Dec,  1852,  p.  3jf.  Nos.  41,  53,  162,  194,  221,  352. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  May  23,  1851. 


52 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


picture.  The  design  of  the  composition  is  said  to  have  been 
based  upon  the  account  given  in  Marshall's  History  of  Ken- 
tucky',^ but  we  may  be  sure  that  Bingham  did  not  hesitate  to 
use  his  imagination  coupled  with  his  knowledge  of  the  life 
and  costumes  of  early  days.  Boone,  a  middle-aged  man  in 
picturesque  costume  of  moccasins  and  homespun  clothes, 
heads  the  procession,  looking  intently  to  the  front,  grasping 
with  his  left  hand  the  butt  of  his  rifle,  which  rests  upon  his 
shoulder,  and  with  his  right  hand  guiding  the  horse  upon  which 
his  weary  wife  sits.  At  his  left  and  a  little  behind  him  walks 
a  companion  (PI.  XXVI,  1)  of  about  his  own  age.  He,  too, 
feels  the  responsibility  of  the  lives  at  stake,  and  he  strides 
forward,  his  whole  body  alert  and  his  gun  held  in  such  a  posi- 
tion that  he  can  use  it  upon  an  instant's  warning.  A  third  man 
near  the  front  has  stooped  down  for  a  moment  to  fasten  his 
moccasin,  and  behind  comes  the  company  on  horses,  with 
kettles,  buckets  and  other  necessary  household  equipment. 
The  principal  light  falls  through  a  gap  at  the  left  upon 
the  group  in  the  foreground.  The  white  horse  and  the  light 
yellow  suit  of  Boone's  make,  in  the  center  of  the  picture, 
the  focus  of  highest  light.  Little  flecks  of  light  also  fall  upon 
other  figures  near  the  front  and  upon  the  bare  branches  and 
tree  trunks  at  the  sides.  The  work  is  by  no  means  an  exact 
copy  of  nature,  but  it  is  very  effective,  telling  the  story  which 
the  artist  wished  it  to  tell.  The  paint  is  laid  on  more  thickly 
than  in  his  earlier  canvases,  but  it  is  done  with  the  same  care- 
ful, smooth  brush-work  and  with  little  value  as  to  color. 
In  June  of  1853,  Bingham  was  exhibiting  the  picture  in  St. 
Louis.  He  proposed  to  dispose  of  it  by  raffle.  Three  hundred 
shares  were  to  be  sold  at  two  dollars  each,  as  the  work  was 
valued  at  six  hundred  dollars;  two  hundred  of  the  chances 


^md..  May  23.  1851. 


Plate  XXVI 


From  an  Engraving 

EMIGRATION  OF  DANIEL  BOONE 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  53 

had  already  been  taken.  It  was  just  the  year  previous  to 
this,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  American  Art  Union's  method 
of  distribution  by  lot  was  condemned.  But  most  people  did 
not  feel  averse  to  this  kind  of  lottery,  and  it  was  even  urged 
(we  do  not  know  whether  the  suggestion  was  followed)  that 
the  literary  societies  of  the  University  purchase  a  number  of 
shares,  so  that  they  might  stand  a  good  chance  of  obtaining 
the  Emigration  of  Daniel  Boone  for  the  University.^ 

The  high  estimate  which  was  placed  upon  this  work  by 
some  contemporary  critics  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  this 
painting  was  the  first  (it  is  believed)  done  by  an  American 
artist  of  which  Goupil  and  Company,  prominent  engravers  in 
Paris,  purchased  the  copyright  privilege  of  engraving.  They 
had  already  engraved  several  of  the  genre  painter  Mount's 
pictures  and  probably  some  others  but  had  not  purchased  the 
copyrights.^  The  canvas  was  sent  to  Paris  immediately  after 
its  completion,  and  the  engraving  (PI.  XXVI,  2)  made  from 
it  shows  us  what  the  form  of  the  original  composition  probably 
was;  for  an  examination  of  the  painting  (PI.  XXV)  indicates 
that  it  has  been  changed  a  good  deal.  It  is  very  difficult 
to  discover  signs  of  the  re-painting  in  the  darker  parts;  but 
in  the  lighter  parts,  the  sky  particularly,  it  is  easy  to  trace 
forms  of  branches  that  have  been  painted  out.  Daniel 
Boone  and  the  figures  immediately  around  him  have  remained 
the  same,  but  some  of  the  figures  in  the  rear  have  been  changed. 
The  greatest  alteration,  however,  has  been  made  in  the  land- 
scape, which  has  become  much  more  effective  in  romantic, 
mysterious  feeling. 

October  31,  1851,  a  visitor  to  Bingham's  studio  in  Colum- 
bia tells  of  seeing  four  of  his  late  pictures,  County  Election, 


'Ibid.,  Oct.  29,  1852,  and  June  17,  1853,  from  the  St.  Louis  News. 
^Ibid.,  May  23,  1851. 


54 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


Candidate  Electioneering,  Chess  Players,  and  a  landscape, 
Scene  on  the  Ohio.  The  first  of  these  is  described  at  length  and 
of  all  four  the  visitor  says:  "These  paintings  are  executed 
with  a  master's  hand,  and  are  well  worth  the  examination  of 
the  connoisseurs  of  the  art.  The  political  scenes  are  original 
and  bold  and  present  a  class  of  subjects  entirely  new."^ 

The  painting  alluded  to  here  under  the  title  of  Candidate 
Electioneering  is  probably  the  one  called  elsewhere  The  Canvass 
and  generally  known  today  as  Canvassing  for  a  Vote.  The 
Canvass  is  spoken  of  by  a  writer  in  the  New  York  Mirror  of 
September,  1852,  along  with  The  Election  (both  titles  he  admits 
of  having  "coined"  himself)  and  is  described  as  "a  small  cabinet 
piece  of  some  four  or  five  figures,  forming  an  out-of-door 
group,  which  is  composed  of  the  candidate  or  his  friend 
electioneering  for  him,  endeavoring  to  circumvent  an  honest 
old  countryman,  who  has  by  his  side  a  shrewd  old  fellow,  who 
cannot  be  readily  taken  in."^  There  is  nothing  in  this  descrip- 
tion which  disagrees  with  the  picture  we  know  as  Canvassing 
for  a  Vote. 

Though  there  is  notice  in  1848  of  a  composition  called 
Stump  Orator  included  in  the  distribution  of  the  American 
Art  Union,  the  County  Election  and  Canvassing  for  a  Vote 
represent  the  beginning,  as  far  as  the  work  we  are  familiar 
with  is  concerned,  of  a  complete  series  of  political  scenes, 
inspired  no  doubt  by  the  artist's  own  experiences  in  the  politi- 
cal field.  Some  contend  that  he  never  represented  actual 
individuals  in  his  compositions,  that  his  types  are  purely 
representative.  They  are  representative  and  are  probably 
not  exact  portraits  of  individuals  whom  Bingham  knew,  and  yet 
we  know  that  he  made  sketches  from  life  and  then  arranged  his 

iJ6id.,  Oct.  31,  1851.  This  article  was  copied  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  American 
Art  Union,  Dec,  1851,  p.  151. 

^New  York  Mirror,  copied  in  the  Missouri  Statesman,  Sept.  10,  1852. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  55 

compositions  with  these  sketches  as  the  basis. ^  And  some 
contemporaries  of  the  artist  pick  out  in  his  pictures  people 
who  were  prominent  in  that  period.  Thus,  in  Canvassing  for 
a  Vote  (PI.  XXVII),  Dr.  Potter  states  that  the  candidate 
putting  forth  the  arguments  is  Bingham  himself  and  the  man 
to  whom  he  is  directing  his  remarks  is  a  certain  Mr.  Piper. 
Another  version  has  it  that  the  candidate  is  Claiborne  Fox 
Jackson,  the  hotel-keeper  is  Captain  Pierce  and  the  hotel  is 
the  old  tavern  at  Arrow  Rock.^  The  scene  is  just  outside 
the  village  hotel,  as  is  announced  by  the  signboard.  The 
enthusiastic  politician  has  dismounted  from  his  horse  and 
pulled  up  a  chair  on  the  flagstones  close  to  two  men  of  sharply 
contrasting  types.  The  jolly  inn-keeper,  attracted  by  the 
talk,  has  come  up  behind  the  others  to  listen.  The  audience 
is  not  yet  convinced,  but  the  man  in  whom  the  speaker  is 
most  interested  seems  to  have  been  struck  by  a  new  phase  of 
the  question,  something  he  had  not  thought  of  before,  and  the 
candidate  sees  a  possibility  of  winning  him. 

The  County  Election  (PI.  XXVIII),  is  one  of  the  best 
known  and  most  popular  works  by  Bingham.  It  excited  a 
great  deal  of  comment  during  the  months  that  it  was  being 
painted  and  for  several  years  afterward.  October  31,  1851, 
we  have  notice  of  the  artist's  having  been  at  work  upon  the 
canvas  constantly  for  three  months;  January  9,  1852,  it  was 
not  yet  quite  finished;  and  by  March  19  of  the  same  year  it 
was  ready  for  the  engraver.^  The  painting,  which  now  hangs 
in  the  Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis,  occupies  a  canvas  of 
about  three  by  four  feet  and  includes  about  sixty  figures,  most 
of  which  are  quite  distinctly  shown  and  well  characterized, 

^Bulletin  of  the  American  Art  Union,  Aug.,  1849,  pp.  10-12.  See  also 
above  p.  35. 

'Mountjoy,  Mr.  Shannon,  in  the  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  Nov.  6,  1904. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Oct.  31,  1851;  Jan.  9,  and  Mar.  19,  1852. 


56 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


but  they  are  so  arranged  that  the  interesting  details  do  not 
spoil  the  effect  of  the  whole.  People  of  the  time  in  which  the 
picture  was  painted  took  great  delight  in  it  because  it  was  so 
full  of  the  spirit  of  the  subject,  one  of  the  wonders  being  that  so 
many  incidents  instinct  with  the  life  of  election  day  could  be 
collected  in  so  small  a  space.  Some  thought  the  most  remark- 
able characteristic  of  the  work  was  shown  in  the  fact  that  all 
who  looked  at  the  picture  seemed  at  once  to  recognize  some  old 
acquaintances  in  the  various  groups  and  were  disposed  to 
fancy  that  they  were  seeing  actual  portraits.  "We  saw  most 
unmistakably  an  old  county  court  judge  of  the  interior,  who 
may  invariably  be  seen  on  'election  day'  perched  upon  the 
courthouse  fence,  discoursing  with  the  learning  and  authority 
which  are  inseparable  from  high  official  position  upon  the 
infallibility  and  super-excellence  of  the  'Democratic'  party. 
There  he  sits  in  the  identical  place  and  attitude  in  Bingham's 
picture,  so  true  a  copy  that  we  are  sure,  were  the  original  to 
see  it,  he  would  feel  insulted  at  the  artist's  presumptuous 
transfer  of  such  an  unapproachable  greatness  to  vulgar 
canvas."^ 

The  election  is  taking  place  at  the  side  of  the  picture  to 
the  spectator's  right.  Here,  in  the  porch  of  the  courthouse 
(said  by  some  to  be  the  wooden  courthouse  at  Arrow  Rock, 
by  others  that  at  Marshall),  are  gathered  the  clerks  and  other 
officials.  Boards  are  nailed  across  from  post  to  post  to  sepa- 
rate these  officers  from  the  crowd  outside.  One  voter  is  on  the 
top  step,  where,  reaching  over  the  partition,  he  places  his  hand 
on  the  Bible  held  by  the  judge  (said  to  be  an  Ex-Governor  of 
Missouri)  and  is  sworn  in.  A  citizen  might  vote  in  any  town- 
ship he  chose;  but  he  had  first  to  swear,  among  other  things, 
that  he  had  voted  in  no  other  precinct.    Evidently  there  was 


^Ibid.,  Jan.  9,  1852,  from  the  St.  Louis  Intelligencer. 


Plate  XXIX 


Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis 

SKETCHES  USED  IN  COUNTY  ELECTION 


Plate  XXX 


Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis 

SKETCHES  USED  IN  COUNTY  ELECTION 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  57 

no  law  in  regard  to  electioneering  within  a  hundred  feet  of 
the  polls;  for  plenty  of  it  is  being  done  here  and  that  with 
great  earnestness.  The  dignitary  with  the  silk  hat,  who,  with 
a  low  bow,  hands  his  card  to  a  friend  by  way  of  soliciting  his 
vote  is  recognized  as  Bingham's  old  opponent,  Mr.  Sappington. 
At  the  extreme  left  of  the  picture  is  the  cider  and  gingerbread 
stand,  where  something  stronger  than  cider  apparently  may  be 
had,  judging  from  the  appearance  of  several  unfortunate 
individuals.  In  the  open  space  in  the  foreground  two  boys, 
one  (PI.  XXIX,  1)  said  to  be  Bingham's  son,  are  playing 
mumble-the-peg.  Many  of  the  figures  used  here  are  copied 
with  but  slight  changes  from  the  sketches  in  the  sketchbook. 
For  example,  one  of  the  boys  playing  mumble-the-peg  (PI. 
XXIX,  1),  the  man  at  the  left  carrying  off  his  intoxicated 
friend  (PI.  XXIX,  2  and  3),  another  sufferer  in  the  lower 
right-hand  corner  sitting  on  a  barrel  (PI.  XXX,  1),  the  negro 
pouring  cider  (PI.  XXX,  3),  an  old  man  coming  down  the 
steps  from  voting  (PI.  XXX,  2),  and  two  of  the  group  of  three 
standing  figures  just  below  the  voter's  railing  (PI.  XXX,  4). 
Much  is  said  about  the  figures  in  Bingham's  paintings  and 
that  justly,  for  they  are  remarkably  full  of  character,  and  they 
form  the  part  of  the  pictures  in  which  the  artist  manifestly 
was  most  interested.  But  the  setting  of  the  scenes  is  worth 
noticing.  The  village  streets  in  which  these  political  scenes 
take  place  are  convincingly  represented,  the  perspective  is 
correct  and  a  good  feeling  for  atmosphere  is  shown. 

Bingham  went  to  St.  Louis  in  the  winter  of  1851  and  in 
his  studio  there  continued  the  work  on  the  County  Election 
and  other  compositions. ^  He  did  not  give  his  entire  attention 
to  these  genre  paintings;  portraiture  demanded  a  great  deal 
of  his  time  now,  as  always.    Early  in  1852,  we  find  him  engaged 


^Ihid.,  Oct.  31,  1851,  and  Jan.  9,  1852,  from  the  St.  Louis  Intelligencer. 


58 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


principally  in  this  branch,  making  portraits  of  notable  resi- 
dents of  St.  Louis,  which  a  contemporary  describes  as  of  the 
highest  possible  truth  of  feature  and  expression.  One  of  them, 
representing  a  state  judicial  dignitary,  conveyed  to  the  one 
who  saw  it  the  impression  of  "identity"  rather  than  of  "mere 
resemblance."  "The  'old  judge'  himself  is  there,  with  his 
benevolent  and  intellectual  face,  looking  as  much  at  home  in 
a  gilt  frame  as  if  he  had  never  been  anywhere  else."^ 

Until  the  last  of  March,  1852,  the  artist  remained  in  St. 
Louis;  and  when  he  had  finished  the  County  Election,  he 
began  to  take  up  subscriptions  at  ten  dollars  each  for  engrav- 
ings of  it.  He  exhibited  the  picture  in  St.  Louis,  Columbia 
and  probably  a  number  of  other  places  before  going  East 
with  it,  encouraging  subscribers,  says  a  newspaper  notice  of 
the  day,  by  giving  one  chance  on  the  original  painting  of 
Emigration  of  Daniel  Boone  (or,  if  the  winner  should  prefer, 
the  valuation  of  the  picture,  six  hundred  dollars)  for  each 
subscription  paid  in  advance.^  But  if  this  plan  was  carried 
out,  the  successful  party  must  have  chosen  the  six  hundred 
dollars;  for  the  painting  in  question  was,  as  we  have  seen 
above,  put  up  for  raffle  a  year  later  by  the  artist. 

In  June,  1852,  Bingham  went  as  a  delegate  from  the 
eighth  district  to  the  Whig  national  convention  in  Baltimore, 
probably  remaining  a  little  time  thereafter  in  the  interest  of 
his  art.^  It  may  have  been  during  this  visit  in  the  East  that 
he  made  arrangements  with  John  Sartain,  the  Philadelphia 
engraver,  for  the  engraving  of  the  County  Election.  Such 
arrangements  had  been  made,  at  least,  as  early  as  October  of 
this  year.    In  October  the  painting  was  again  exhibited  in 


'/ftid.,  Jan.  9,  1852,  from  the  St.  Louis  Intelligencer. 
*Ibid.,  Oct.  29,  1852. 
*md.,  June  4,  1852. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  59 

Columbia  and  finally  in  New  Orleans,  where  it  was  sold  in 
April  to  Robert  J.  Ward  of  Louisville  for  one  thousand  dollars, 
with  the  reservation  that  the  artist  should  be  allowed  to 
exhibit  it  in  Cincinnati  and  other  cities  and  to  leave  it  with 
Sartain  for  the  time  required  to  make  an  engraving  of  it.^ 
The  preparation  of  the  plate  must  have  been  begun  in  the 
latter  part  of  1852,  for  in  February,  1854,  we  have  record  that 
Sartain  had  been  working  upon  it  for  eighteen  months  past 
and  in  September  that  he  had  been  working  upon  it  for  about 
two  years.^  The  records  are  somewhat  conflicting  as  to  the 
exact  amount  of  this  time  Bingham  spent  in  Philadelphia; 
but  they  agree  in  locating  him  there,  overseeing  the  work, 
during  the  last  months  of  1853  and  the  first  of  1854  until  it  was 
completed  in  June  of  the  latter  year.^  Subscribers  had  been 
promised  their  copies  of  the  engraving  some  months  before 
this,  and  the  delay  was  accounted  for  upon  the  ground  that 
Sartain  was  bestowing  most  minute  labor  upon  the  plate, 
which  he  intended  should  be  his  chef  d'  ouvre  in  engraving. 
In  the  spring  of  1854  a  proof  from  the  engraving  was  exhibited 
and  attracted  much  attention  in  the  Rotunda  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  where  it  appeared  as  one  of  the 
works  collected  annually  and  shown  for  the  first  time  to  the 
public  by  that  institution.  But  the  copies  were  not  ready  for 
distribution  until  September  of  that  year.'* 

There  is  a  question,  again,  as  to  whether  the  painting 
of  the  County  Election  with  which  we  are  familiar,  that  in  the 
Mercantile  Library,  is  the  original  or  a  replica.  This  painting 
was  given  to  the  library,  together  with  two  other  canvases 

»J6td.,  Oct.  29,  1852,  and  Apr.  22  and  June  10,  1853. 
«76id.,  Feb.  3,  and  Sept.  22,  1854. 
•/bid.,  June  30  and  Sept.  15,  1854. 

*Ihid.,  Feb.  3  and  Sept.  22,  1854.  Philadelphia  Register,  Sept.  7,  1854 — 
copied  in  the  Missouri  Statesman,  Sept.  22,  1854. 


60 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


of  the  "election  series"  in  1862  by  John  H.  Beach,  who  was 
then  president  of  the  Library  Board. ^  He  had  bought  them 
from  Bingham  upon  the  advice  of  A.  J.  Conant,  an  artist 
and  a  friend  of  Bingham's,  whom  the  latter  had  asked  to  help 
in  selling  the  pictures.^  It  seems  hardly  probable  that 
Bingham  would  have  had  the  picture  again  in  ten  years  after 
it  had  been  sold  in  Kentucky,  and  yet  the  one  in  the  Mercantile 
Library  agrees  quite  perfectly  with  the  engraving.  Again, 
in  1879  the  County  Election  was  mentioned  in  a  list  of  paintings 
then  in  the  artist's  studio.^  And  in  May,  1895,  a  painting 
referred  to  as  ''Election  Day  in  Independence,  Missouri — an 
illustration  of  western  life  before  the  war,"  was  on  exhibition 
and  offered  for  sale  in  Boston.^  So  there  must  have  been  at 
least  one  replica  and  probably  two. 

While  in  Philadelphia  in  the  latter  part  of  1853,  Bingham 
began  work  upon  another  composition  in  the  "election  series," 
the  County  Canvass,^  better  known  today  as  Stump  Speaking 
(PI.  XXXI).  The  statesman-artist,  as  Bingham  has  often 
been  called,  must  have  had  in  mind  such  occasions  as  the 
notable  Whig  convention  at  Rocheport  when  he  placed  his 
speaker  (said  to  be  E.  D.  Sappington)  on  this  platform  out 
under  a  great  tree,  with  the  crowds  of  people  gathered  around 
showing  various  degrees  of  interest.  On  the  platform  behind 
the  speaker  sits  a  big  fat  personage,  whom  we  are  told  is 
Ex-Governor  M.  M.  Marmaduke,  so  accurately  portrayed 
that  he  felt  insulted.  Another  man  sitting  beside  him  taking 
notes  is  thought  by  some  to  be  Bingham  himself.  The  general 
arrangement  of  the  composition  is  very  much  the  same  as 

^Mercantile  Library  Report,  1862. 

'Letter  from  A.  J.  Conant  to  Miss  Simonds,  Aug.  3,  1902. 
*Missouri  Statesman,  Mar.  7,  1879. 
^Missouri  Democrat  (Boonville,  Mo.),  May  3,  1895. 
•Missouri  Statesman,  Nov.  18,  1853. 


Plate  XXXII 


Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis 

SKETCHES  USED  IN  STUMP  SPEAKING 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  61 

that  of  the  County  Election.  One  is  just  the  reverse  of  the  other. 
In  Stump  Speaking  the  highest  point  and  the  center  of  interest 
is  at  the  left,  while  in  the  other  it  is  at  the  right.  There  is, 
again,  an  open  space  in  the  center  foreground,  where  boys 
are  playing.  Much  skill  is  shown  in  the  handling  of  figures  so 
as  to  lead  the  eye  easily  from  one  to  another  and  always  to 
bring  it,  eventually,  no  matter  where  it  starts  in,  to  the  face 
of  the  speaker  (PI.  XXXII,  1),  who  leans  forward  with  his 
whole  body  in  the  attitude  characteristic  of  one  who  is  trying 
with  all  his  power  to  convince  his  listeners.  The  man  imme- 
diately in  front  of  the  speaker's  stand,  with  his  head  resting 
on  his  cane  and  even  his  dog  in  an  attitude  suggestive  of  his 
"brown  study"  (PI.  XXXII,  2) ;  the  younger  fellow  out  in  the 
crowd  at  the  speaker's  left  who  has  paid  about  one  visit  too 
many  to  the  hard  cider  keg  (PI.  XXXII,  3);  and  the  tall 
man  in  the  immediate  foreground,  who  is  on  the  speaker's 
side  to  start  with  and  feels  that  every  word  being  uttered  is 
precious,  are  some  representative  figures,  if  one  may  call  any 
representative  in  this  large  group,  in  which  each  one  is  so 
entirely  different  from  every  other.  By  September  22,  1854, 
the  painting  was  complete  and  had  been  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  engraver,  Gautier  in  Paris.^  It  was  probably  this 
painting  which  was  exhibited  in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts  in  1860,  under  the  title  of  Before  the  Election. 
It  was  sold  to  John  H.  Beach,  who  presented  it  in  1862  to 
the  Mercantile  Library,  where  it  now  hangs.^ 

Bingham  had  probably  not  yet  completed  his  Stump 
Speaking  when  he  began  his  third  large  canvas  of  this  series. 
September  7,  1854,  a  Philadelphia  paper  mentions  the 
superior  quaUty  of  the  then  unfinished  painting  6/  the  An- 


^Ibid.,  Sept.  22,  1854.  Gautier's  signature  is  on  the  engravings. 
'Mercantile  Library  Report,  1862. 


62 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


nouncement  of  the  Result  of  the  Election,  or  The  Verdict  of  the 
People.^  The  work  may  have  been  so  nearly  completed  that 
it  could  be  left  in  the  East  when  Bingham  returned  t,o  Mis- 
souri; for  September  14,  1855,  we  have  a  notice  that  the  artist 
expected  to  receive  the  picture  from  New  York  in  time  for 
the  county  fair.^  He  planned  to  have  an  engraving  made  of  it, 
and  subscriptions  for  copies  had  already  been  opened  by  May 
of  1856;  but  for  some  reason  the  plan  was  not  carried  out 
until  1870,  when  he  sent  a  large  photograph  of  the  painting  to 
Goupil  and  Company  in  Paris  that  it  might  be  engraved. 
After  the  work  had  been  done,  two  proofs  were  sent  to  Bing- 
ham, who,  after  examining  them,  ordered  five  thousand  copies. 
The  order  reached  Paris  at  about  the  time  of  the  Franco- 
Prussian  attack,  and  the  company's  building,  with  all  its 
contents,  was  destroyed.  So  these  two  proofs  are  the  only 
copies  ever  made.^  But  the  artist  painted  a  replica  of  the 
original,  so  that  there  are  two  paintings  now  in  existence, 
one  in  the  Mercantile  Library  at  St.  Louis  (acquired  in  1862) 
and  the  other  owned  by  Mr.  J.  W.  S.  Peters  of  Kansas  City. 
In  a  letter  written  by  Rollins  Bingham,  son  of  the  artist,  in 
1902,  it  is  stated  that  the  painting  owned  by  Mr.  Peters,  which 
was  purchased  for  two  hundred  dollars  at  the  administrator's 
sale  of  the  Bingham  pictures  in  1893,  is  the  replica  and  that 
the  one  in  the  Mercantile  Library  is  the  original.'*  This 
statement  is  borne  out  by  a  comparison  of  the  two  paintings 
with  the  engraving  (PI.  XXXIII).  The  one  in  the  Mercantile 
Library  agrees  with  it  quite  faithfully  in  the  details,  while 
the  one  owned  by  Mr.  Peters  (PI.  XXXIV),  shows  a  good 


^Missouri  Statesman,  Sept.  22,  1854,  copied  from  the  Philadelphia  Register 
of  Sept.  7. 

^Ibid.,  Sept.  14,  1855. 
^Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins. 

'Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham  to  Miss  Simonds,  June  18.  1902. 


GENRE  PAINTING  AND  POLITICAL  ACTIVITY.  63 

deal  of  alteration.  Among  many  minor  changes,  such  as 
slight  variation  of  dress,  an  interesting  group  of  a  negro 
woman  and  a  little  boy  have  been  added  at  the  right,  the 
rather  unpleasing  and  monotonous  phalanx  of  men  stretching 
across  this  side  of  the  picture  has  been  broken  up,  and  the 
gradations  of  light  and  shade  and  atmosphere  are  treated  in  a 
more  successful  manner.  The  size  and  color  of  the  two 
paintings,  however,  the  one  in  the  Mercantile  Library  being 
the  larger,  darker  and  duller,  would  indicate,  by  the  closer 
resemblance  to  the  work  of  later  years,  that  this  one  is  the 
later  painting.^ 

The  picture  is  an  embodiment  of  the  artist's  belief  in 
the  submission  of  the  people  to  the  will  of  the  majority,  alluded 
to  above.  The  result  of  the  election  is  being  announced  from 
the  porch  of  the  courthouse,  which  is  enclosed,  as  in  the 
County  Election,  by  boards  nailed  from  one  post  to  another. 
The  scene  is  laid  in  a  larger  town  this  time,  however.  Some 
members  of  the  crowd  sit  in  utter  dejection,  while  others, 
delighted  with  the  news,  are  shouting,  laughing  and  throwing 
their  hats  by  way  of  expressing  their  approval.  A  water- 
melon is  being  served  up  at  the  right,  and  a  negro  comes  in 
at  the  left,  pushing  a  wheelbarrow  loaded  with  keg  and  jug 
which  explain  the  unbalanced  condition  of  some  of  the  men. 
The  sunlight  sifts  in  at  the  left,  falling  in  spots  upon  the  crowd, 
those  in  the  foreground  getting  the  most,  as  their  importance 
justifies.  Over  the  whole  scene  float  the  stars  and  stripes  in 
the  afternoon  breeze,  and  down  the  street  we  get  a  view  which 
has  been  well  compared  to  those  of  the  old  Dutch  Kirmess 
scenes. 2 


»See  p.  68. 

'Parsons,  Mrs.  Helen  R.,  Missouri's  Greatest  Painter,  in  the  Kansas  City 
Public  Library  Quarterly,  July,  1901. 


64 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


September  14,  1855,  Bingham  was  spending  most  of  his 
time  on  portraiture.    He  had  opened  a  studio  in  the  Grand  ^ 
Jury  room  of  the  courthouse  at  Columbia  and  was  engaged 
upon  a  number  of  portraits.^    By  the  fourteenth  of  November  1 
he  was  in  Jefferson  City  and  had  taken  a  room  in  the  Capitol,  ' 
where  he  remained  for  a  month  or  more  painting  portraits. 
Incidentally,  he  exhibited  in  his  studio  there  the  Verdict  of 
the  People.'^    Early  in  December  he  spoke  in  a  Whig  meeting 
in  the  Capitol.^    March  14,  1856,  he  was  in  Columbia  again,  | 
engaged  upon  a  historical  painting,  Washington  Crossing  the  ; 
Delaware"^  (PI.  XXXV),  no  doubt  inspired  by  Leutze's  popular 
representation  of  the  same  subject,  which  it  resembles  markedly 
both  in  composition  and  in  purpose.    For  many  years  the 
picture  remained  unfinished,  and  not  until  eighteen  years  | 
after  its  beginning  was  it  actually  completed.^    It  is  a  large  | 
canvas,  and,  like  Leutze's,  it  is  crowded  and  confused  and  ; 
wholly  impossible  as  far  as  truth  to  nature  is  concerned.  I 
The  whole  purpose  of  the  work  is  to  glorify  the  hero,  Washing- 
ton,  and  to  commemorate  the  event  represented.  The 
composition  is  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid,  with 
Washington  on  a  white  horse  forming  the  apex.    About  him  | 
are  grouped  his  men,  engaged  in  driving  the  boat  to  shore  by  i 
pushing  vigorously  with  their  oars  against  blocks  of  ice.  | 
Other  boats  with  their  crews  are  subordinated  to  this  one.  ' 
The  picture  is  less  pleasing  than  most  of  Bingham's  work  be-  ^ 
cause  so  grandiose  and  confused.    It  is  not  often  that  Bing- 
ham's compositions  seem  confused,  even  when  there  are  a 
great  many  figures  in  them. 

^Missouri  Statesman,  Sept.  14,  1855.  , 
*Ibid.,  Nov.  23,  1855. 

*Ibid.,  Dec.  14,  1855.  1 

*Ibid.,  Mar.  14,  1856.  I 

»Mrs.  Birch,  contemporary  friend  of  the  artist.  j 


DUSSELDORF  PERIOD. 


65 


CHAPTER  V. 

DUSSELDORF  PERIOD  (1856-60). 

An  item  copied  from  a  St.  Louis  paper  in  a  Columbia 
publication  of  May  16,  1856,  states  that  the  artist  would 
leave  for  the  East  in  a  few  days  and  would  soon  start  for 
Europe.^  Other  records  state  that  he  started  sometime  in 
1856.2  While  in  Europe  he  visited  Paris,  London  and 
Berlin.  The  annual  catalogue  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts  for  1857  contains  in  its  exhibition  list  a  picture 
by  Bingham  called  The  First  Music  Lesson,  owned  by  Edward 
P.  Mitchell,  and  states  that  the  artist  was  then  in  Paris. 
But  most  of  his  time  abroad  was  spent  in  Diisseldorf;  for  it 
was  to  Diisseldorf  that  American  artists  were  going  at  this 
time.  Leutze  spent  twenty  years  in  the  quiet  little  Dutch 
city,  and  Mount  and  Woodville,  two  genre  painters,  also 
spent  much  time  there.  The  school  that  had  grown  up  in 
this  center  was  of  a  literary  character,  caring  little  for  artistic 
color  or  atmosphere,  but  laying  stress  upon  the  arrangement 
of  stage  scenes  to  make  compositions  that  would  tell  stories. 
So  we  readily  see  why  Bingham  was  attracted  to  it.  His  love 
of  sincere,  simple  life,  however,  saved  him  from  the  insipid, 
sentimental  work  characteristic  of  such  leading  members  of 
the  school  as  Lessing  and  Hildebrant. 

Bingham's  was  the  only  American  family  resident  in 
Diisseldorf,  and  to  their  pleasant  home  they  invited  young 
American  artists  and  students  who  came  to  the  city.  It  is 
said  that  hardly  an  evening  passed  that  there  was  not  a  merry 

^Missouri  Statesman,  May  16,  1856,  from  the  St.  Louis  Republic. 
>Whitney,  History  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  v.  I,  p.  606. 
Davis  and  Durrie,  History  of  Missouri,  p.  470,  etc. 
5 


66 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


gathering  in  their  parlor.  Bingham  was  in  the  habit  of 
examining  the  hotel  registers  and  calling  at  once  upon  any  who 
were  registered  from  America,  insisting  upon  their  making 
their  home  with  him  and  his  family. 

He  did  not  neglect  the  education  of  his  son  and  daughter 
while  abroad;  but  for  his  own  part,  he  did  not  consider  it 
worth  while  to  spend  his  time  learning  the  new  languages. 
He  carried  on  what  conversation  was  necessary  by  hastily 
sketching  pictures  in  a  notebook  which  he  always  carried  with 
him.  Because  of  his  success  by  this  means,  all  the  family's 
shopping  was  soon  entrusted  to  him.^  How  his  unique  actions 
might  appear  to  others  never  occurred  to  him ;  his  mind  was 
usually  so  preoccupied  that  he  did  not  think  of  appearance. 
Many  stories  are  told  of  instances  of  what  is  usually  termed  his 
"absentmindedness."  Upon  one  occasion  he  put  on  his 
coat  wrong  side  out  and  started  toward  town,  engrossed  in  his 
own  thoughts.  The  coat  had  a  Scotch  plaid  lining,  and,  as 
he  proceeded  on  his  way,  a  large  and  larger  crowd  of  mis- 
chievous boys  collected  in  his  wake,  hooting  and  jeering  with 
their  foreign  tongue  in  impish  derision.  And  Bingham,  though 
he  noticed  the  commotion,  did  not  realize  that  he  was  the  cause 
of  it  until,  still  followed  by  the  gamins,  he  reached  his  own 
door  and  was  enlightened  by  a  member  of  the  family 

December,  1857,  Bingham  was  working  in  Diisseldorf 
upon  two  full-length  portraits  of  Washington  and  Jefferson 
for  the  Capitol  of  Missouri,  and  also  a  large  picture  of  Jolly 
Flathoatmen?  The  portraits  of  Washington  and  Jefferson 
were,  according  to  a  report  dated  February  14,  1857,  in  the 

iLetter  from  Mrs.  Emma  King  Turner,  granddaughter  of  Bingham,  to 
Miss  Simonds,  February  27,  1902. 

»Letter  from  Mrs.  Alice  King  Newton,  granddaughter  of  Bingham,  to  her 
sister,  Mrs.  Turner. 

'Missouri  Statesman,  Dec.  18,  1857,  from  the  Fulton  Telegraph. 


DUSSELDORF  PERIOD. 


67 


Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  contracted  for  by  a 
committee  from  the  House  in  the  summer  of  1856,  and  were  to  be 
ready  for  delivery  on  or  before  the  first  of  December,  1858. 
This  report  also  states  that  Bingham  was  at  the  time  in 
Diisseldorf  engaged  upon  the  work.  By  January  28,  1859, 
he  had  reached  Jefferson  City  with  the  two  portraits.^  And 
since  they,  with  all  the  other  Bingham  work  in  the  State 
Capitol,  were  destroyed  in  the  late  fire  (1912),  we  shall  have 
to  follow  the  opinion  of  others  concerning  them.  One  who 
saw  the  Jefferson  portrait  just  after  it  had  reached  Jefferson 
City  was  eloquent  in  his  praise  of  it.  He  considered  it  the 
masterpiece  of  the  artist,  "an  incarnation,"  full  of  life  and 
charm.2  ^^^^  head  is  said  to  have  been  copied  from  Stuart's 
portrait  of  Jefferson  painted  in  1804  and  owned  in  1856  by 
Governor  Cole  of  Philadelphia,  who  gave  Bingham  a  room  in 
his  house  where  he  made  the  copy  from  which  the  life-sized 
portrait  was  painted,  also  furnishing  him  with  information 
concerning  the  costume  of  the  distinguished  statesman.^ 
From  this  we  infer  that  the  artist  received  the  commission 
soon  after  or  just  before  starting  East  in  the  summer  of  1856, 
and  that  he  delayed  in  Philadelphia  to  make  a  study  for  at 
least  one  of  the  portraits  before  going  to  Europe.  His  study 
for  the  head  of  Washington,  a  copy  of  Stuart's  famous  Athe- 
naeum portrait,  also  was  probably  done  at  this  time.  This 
copy  and  that  of  Stuart's  Martha  Washington  (both  are  now 
in  the  Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis)  are  painted  with  the 
most  sketchy  technique  which  Bingham  ever  used  in  any 
known  examples  of  his  painting.  Perhaps  this  was  due  in 
part  to  the  fact  that  he  was  doing  the  work  for  studies,  not 
for  finished  pictures.    And  yet  when  we  consider  that  in  his 


^Ibid.,  Jan.  28,  1859. 

^Ibid.,  Feb.  4,  1859,  from  a  Jefferson  City  correspondent. 
'See  note  2. 


68 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


sketchbook  we  find  most  things  carefully  finished,  it  seems  that 
it  must  have  been  due  in  greater  part  to  the  artist  whom  he 
was  copying.  Gilbert  Stuart,  that  greatest  of  American 
portrait  painters  until  comparatively  recent  times,  did  his 
work  very  sketchily,  giving  a  wonderful  charm  and  feeling  of 
atmosphere,  some  of  which  Bingham  has  caught  in  his  copies. 
The  final  portrait  of  Washington  the  contemporary  who 
described  the  one  of  Jefferson  had  not  seen,  as  the  frame  had 
been  injured  in  the  transportation  from  Diisseldorf,  and  it 
could  not  be  hung  until  repaired.  But  others  who  saw  it 
assigned  it  also  a  high  rank.^ 

The  Jolly  Flathoatmen  mentioned  above  as  one  of  the 
compositions  upon  which  the  artist  was  at  work  in  Diisseldorf 
and  described  in  the  article  referred  to  as  a  large  painting  is 
probably  the  painting  now  in  the  Mercantile  Library  in  St. 
Louis  which  is  generally  designated  as  Jolly  Flathoatmen  No.  2. 
It  is  a  larger  canvas  than  the  County  Election  and  Stump 
Speaking  and  about  the  same  size  as  the  last  of  that  series  in 
the  Mercantile  Library,  the  Verdict  of  the  People.  It  has  the 
same  dull  coloring  also  as  this  one.  Bingham  had  been 
influenced  by  followers  of  the  Diisseldorf  school  in  the  eastern 
states  before  he  went  to  Europe ;  so  we  see  no  abrupt  change  at 
this  time.  A  much  greater  change  may  be  seen  by  a  com- 
parison with  the  Emigration  of  Daniel  Boone,  which,  though 
lacking  in  naturalistic  color,  presents  a  greater  variety  of 
values  and  colors  and  a  lighter  general  tone  than  later  work. 
As  compared  with  the  first  Jolly  Flathoatmen  this  second 
composition  is,  again,  much  darker  and  less  attractive.  Bing- 
ham seems  to  have  become  still  more  interested  in  individuals, 
and  so  he  has  subordinated  practically  everything  else  to 
them.    He  brings  the  flatboat  into  the  immediate  foreground. 


^Missouri  Statesman,  Feb.  4  and  Feb.  25,  1859. 


DUSSELDORF  PERIOD. 


69 


and  the  little  view  we  get  of  the  stream  and  bank  is  crowded 
with  the  boats  and  wharves  of  a  river  town.  The  flatboat, 
too,  is  overcrowded  with  figures — nineteen  in  all — whereas 
there  are  only  seven  in  the  earlier  work.  The  central  theme  is 
almost  the  same  in  the  two.  In  the  later  one  the  dancer,  the 
fiddler  and  the  drummer  are  more  nearly  like  those  of  the 
early  painting  owned  by  Mrs.  Mastin  than  those  of  the  engrav- 
ing. It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  use  of  spots  of  white  paint 
for  the  high  lights  and  black  for  the  low  in  the  sketch  of  the 
drummer  (PI.  XX,  2),  giving  an  animated  effect.  In  the  left 
foreground  is  the  same  dejected  figure  (PI.  XXIII,  1),  that 
we  found  in  the  Pittsfield  painting  of  Flathoatmen  Playing 
Cards  (PI.  XXI). 

The  Jolly  Flathoatmen  No.  2,  together  with  the  three 
canvases  of  the  "election  series"  owned  by  the  Mercantile 
Library,  was  given  a  place  at  the  World's  Columbian  Expo- 
sition at  Chicago  in  the  gallery  of  the  Retrospective  Exhibit 
of  American  Art  among  less  than  a  hundred  canvases  by  about 
sixty  artists  of  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth.  Such  artists  as  Gilbert  Stuart, 
Benjamin  West,  Washington  Allston,  John  Singleton  Copley 
and  Charles  W.  Peale  were  represented.^ 

When  he  returned  from  Europe  early  in  the  year  1859, 
Bingham  brought  with  him  also  a  needlework  bust  portrait  of 
Washington,  about  fourteen  by  twenty-four  inches,  done  with 
silk  floss  by  his  little  daughter,  Clara,  then  but  fourteen  years 
old.  It  was  a  copy  from  the  full-length  portrait  of  Washington 
by  her  father,  and  the  colors  and  tones  of  silk  were  so  deftly 
managed  that  at  a  short  distance  the  work  had  the  appearance 
of  an  oil  painting.  This  work  was  presented  to  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  Bingham  as  a  gift  from  his  daughter,'^ 

'Parsons,  Mrs.  Helen  R.,  op.  ext. 

^Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  1859. 


70 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


and  it  occupied  a  place  immediately  above  the  speaker's  chair 
from  that  time.  Though  much  faded,  it  is  still  in  existence.^ 
Because  of  her  ability  for  minute  copying,  Bingham  believed 
that  his  daughter  would  make  a  good  engraver,  and  he  gave 
her  some  training  in  that  line.  But  she  was  married  at  the 
age  of  twenty  or  twenty-one  and  gave  up  the  career  which  her 
father  had  hoped  she  would  follow. 

February  14,  1859,  Bingham  received  a  commission  from 
the  State  Senate  to  paint  a  military  equestrian  portrait  of 
Andrew  Jackson  and  a  full-length  portrait  of  Henry  Clay, 
for  which  service  thirty-five  hundred  dollars  were  appropriated 
by  that  body.  The  same  bill  passed  the  House  on  the  seven- 
teenth of  February .2  Bingham  knew  Mr.  Clay  personally 
and  had  painted  several  portraits  of  him.^ 

April  the  twenty-second  our  artist  was  in  Brunswick 
working  upon  portraiture.^  In  anticipating  his  visit  about 
three  weeks  earlier  the  Brunswick  Central  City  says:  "We 
understand  from  reliable  authority  that  our  great  Missouri 
Artist,  Geo.  C.  Bingham,  has  consented,  at  the  solicitation 
of  some  of  our  citizens,  to  visit  Brunswick  before  his  return 
to  Europe. — The  probability  is,  another  opportunity  to  secure 
a  likeness  by  this  celebrated  painter  will  never  be  offered  to 
our  citizens,  and  we  hope  many  may  be  induced  to  let  him  try 
his  magic  pencil  in  transferring  their  features  to  the  canvas." 

Probably  it  was  during  this  short  stay  in  Missouri  that 
he  painted  the  portraits  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Benoist  Troost  of 
Kansas  City.    In  technical  treatment  they  are  so  closely 

'In  the  State  Capitol.  It  was  saved,  while  all  of  Bingham's  paintings  were 
burned  in  the  fire  of  1912.  Miss  Mathilde  K.  Dallmeyer,  Jefferson  City,  Mo., 
gives  us  this  information. 

■^Journal  of  the  Senate  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  1859,  p.  241. 

Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  1859,  p.  293. 

^Missouri  Statesman,  Feb.  25,  1859. 

*Ibid.,  Apr.  22,  1859. 


Plate  XXXVI 


Property  of  Mr.  E.  It'.  Stephens 

ELIJAH  S.  STEPHENS 


Plate  XXXVII 


Property  of  Mr.  E.  JV.  Stephens 

MRS.  ELIJAH  S.  STEPHENS 


DUSSELDORF  PERIOD. 


71 


analogous  to  the  portraits  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  M.  Piper, 
painted  in  1862,  that  they  might  be  assigned  to  that  year 
were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  Dr.  Troost  died  in  1859.  We 
find  that  Bingham  frequently  used  photographs,  memory  and 
descriptions  when  he  could  not  have  the  person  himself  for 
his  model;  but  the  spontaneity  and  life  in  Dr.  Troost's  por- 
trait in  spite  of  its  stiffness  and  pompousness,  mark  it  as  one  of 
the  best  that  Bingham  ever  painted,  and  it  surely  could  not 
have  been  d6ne  without  the  living  character  before  the  artist. 
At  any  rate  there  is  but  a  year  or  two  between  the  Troost  and 
Piper  portraits.  All  are  painted  on  large  canvases  and  present 
half-length  views  of  the  subjects.  Those  of  Dr.  Troost  and 
his  wife  are  particularly  animated  and  full  of  spirit.  And  the 
former  is  better  in  many  respects  than  that  of  Mrs.  Troost — 
Bingham  usually  did  better  work  when  a  man  was  his  model. 
Here  he  has  represented  a  robust  man  of  about  seventy-five 
years,  sitting  in  his  library  with  a  large  volume  in  his  hand, 
from  which  he  has  just  looked  up,  marking  his  place  with  his 
finger.  The  instantaneous  effect  of  the  work  surpasses  any 
of  the  earlier  portraits  we  have  examined.  The  reddish  tones 
of  the  shadows  in  the  background  and  the  green  of  the  book  are 
identical  with  those  colors  in  the  painting  of  Mrs.  Troost. 
This  fact,  together  with  the  analogy  in  the  arrangement  of 
the  figures,  supports  the  assumption  that  the  two  were  done  at 
about  the  same  time,  despite  the  superiority  of  that  of  Dr. 
Troost.  The  portraits  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Elijah  S.  Stephens 
(Pis.  XXXVI  and  XXXVII),  are  said  to  have  been  painted 
in  1859  also.^  They  are  in  a  bad  state  of  preservation,  which 
may  account  in  a  degree  for  the  duller  color  than  is  in  other 
work  of  the  period.    They  give  the  impression  of  being  truth- 


>Mr.  E.  W.  Stephens,  Columbia,  Missouri. 


72 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


ful  and  sincere  interpretations,  though  lacking  in  the  spon- 
taneity of  the  last  ones  discussed. 

In  the  first  week  of  May,  1859,  shortly  before  starting 
to  Europe,  where  he  had  left  his  family,  Bingham  received  a 
commission  from  the  Mercantile  Library  of  St.  Louis  for  a 
full-length  portrait  of  Baron  von  Humboldt.^  But  before  he 
had  reached  Berlin — in  fact,  before  he  had  more  than  started — 
the  German  naturalist  and  philosopher  died  May  the  sixth 
in  his  ninetieth  year.  Bingham,  nevertheless,  went  on  to 
Berlin,  where  he  was  furnished  several  portraits  of  Humboldt 
and  was  allowed  to  make  studies  for  the  work  in  the  philoso- 
pher's own  library.  The  final  product  was  considered  a  good 
likeness. 2  But  however  the  physical  portrayal  may  be,  the 
spiritual  qualities  associated  with  the  man  are  well  interpreted. 
He  stands  in  his  library,  in  his  hand  an  open  book  from  which 
he  looks  up,  interrupted  in  his  study  by  our  presence.  Only 
the  head  is  emphasized,  all  else  is  much  subdued  in  tone. 
The  furniture  of  the  room  is  so  dimly  shown  that  only  careful 
observation  can  discern  it,  and  the  body  is  but  vaguely  repre- 
sented, seemingly  no  attempt  being  made  to  give  a  correct 
drawing  of  the  anatomy.  But  this  is  not  necessarily  a  deroga- 
tory criticism;  Bingham  knew  how  to  paint  figures  in  such  a 
way  as  to  give  the  suggestion  of  a  body  beneath  the  clothes; 
but  in  the  late  years  of  Humboldt's  life  people  hardly  as- 
sociated the  attenuated  physical  body  with  the  great  person- 
ality. It  was  his  wonderful  intellect  that  was  always  thought 
of.  So  Bingham  has  attempted  to  emphasize  that  phase  by 
artificially  throwing  all  the  light  upon  the  noble  head  crowned 
with  a  glory  of  snow-white  hair.  One  is  somewhat  worried 
by  the  feeling  that  the  book  which  he  holds  must  be  too  heavy 


^Missouri  Statesman,  Apr.  27  and  June  29,  1860,  from  the  St.  Louis  News. 
^Ibid.,  June  29,  1860,  from  the  St.  Louis  News. 


Plate  XXXVIII 


Property  of  Miss   Tete  Todd 

MRS.  R.  L.  TODD  AND  DAUGHTER 


Plate  XXXIX 


Property  oj  Col.  R.  R.  Price 

DR.  EDWIN  PRICE 


DUSSELDORF  PERIOD. 


73 


for  him;  but  it  helps  to  relieve  the  darkness  of  the  picture. 
The  portrait  was  probably  not  finished  until  after  the  artist's 
return  to  the  States;  for  it  was  not  delivered  to  the  Mercantile 
Library  until  about  April  of  1860.^ 

It  is  said  that  Bingham  intended  to  go  to  Italy  while 
he  was  in  Europe  this  second  time,  but  that  the  death  of  his 
wife's  father  on  June  12,  1859,  made  their  return  necessary ,2 
and  they  reached  New  York  in  the  first  week  of  September  of 
that  year.^ 

One  of  the  portraits  painted  shortly  after  his  return, 
that  of  Mrs.  R.  L.  Todd  and  little  daughter  (PI.  XXXVIII), 
makes  an  interesting  comparison  with  his  early  attempt  at 
representing  a  mother  and  child  in  the  portrait  of  Mrs.  Lamme 
and  son  (PI.  X),  more  than  twenty  years  before.  The  greater 
freedom  of  the  later  work  is  apparent  at  once.  Perhaps 
the  features  are  no  more  truthfully  rendered  here  than  in 
Mrs.  Lamme's  portrait,  but  the  general  arrangement  of  compo- 
sition is  more  successful.  The  representation  of  the  baby,  too, 
is  better  understood  in  the  later  work,  the  child  seems  actually 
to  sit  upon  the  mother's  lap,  and  its  body  is  much  more  cor- 
rectly modelled.  The  mother's  hands  are  less  awkwardly 
arranged,  the  texture  of  the  drapery  is  better  suggested,  and 
there  is  more  sparkle  of  life  and  animation  throughout  the 
whole  work.  It  is  said  that  Bingham  himself  considered  this 
one  of  his  best  works  in  portraiture. 

Though  less  well  preserved,  the  portrait  of  Bingham's 
second  wife,  Mrs.  Eliza  Thomas  Bingham,  is  sufficiently 
similar  to  that  of  Mrs.  Todd  in  color,  drawing  and  in  the  oval 
composition  to  justify  its  assignment  to  about  this  year. 


^Ibid..  Apr.  27,  1860. 
'Neff,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Sept.  9,  1859. 


74 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


The  perfect  ease  of  the  pose  and  the  sincere  interpretation  of 
the  character  of  the  subject  make  this,  too,  a  very  successful 
portrait.  Two  years  later,  in  1862,  were  made  the  portraits 
of  Mrs.  Bingham's  sister,  Mrs.  James  M.  Piper,  and  the  latter's 
husband,  Mr.  Piper.  The  color  scheme  and  the  treatment  of 
other  details  here  show  close  similarity  to  the  Troost  por- 
traits. 

Perhaps  the  portrait  of  Mrs.  Thomas  W.  Nelson  in  the 
Kansas  City  Public  Library  also  belongs  to  this  period.  Its 
good  drawing  and  composition  place  it  among  the  works  of 
the  artist's  best  years,  and  the  half-length  view  of  the  figure, 
together  with  the  animated  expression  and  the  deep  rich 
colors,  make  it  a  probable  member  of  this  series.  Though 
his  genre  compositions  are  almost  always  laid  in  the  out-of- 
doors,  this  is  one  of  but  few  known  portraits  with  such  a 
setting.  The  woman  is  dressed  in  a  dark  green  close-fitting 
riding  habit.  The  horse  upon  which  she  sits  is  not  shown,  and 
the  wooded  landscape  is  used  more  as  a  screen  background 
than  as  a  natural  one,  though  the  pathway  leading  off  through 
the  wood  is  charmingly  rendered,  with  the  sunshine  lighting 
it  up  in  the  open  space  beyond.  A  horse's  head  shows  from 
behind  some  trees,  with  a  dog  standing  guard.  But  the  por- 
trait occupies  much  the  largest  part  of  the  canvas. 

In  this  year,  1862,  Bingham  painted  the  portraits  of 
Dr.  Edwin  Price  and  his  son  and  daughter-in-law.  Col.  and 
Mrs.  R.  B.  Price.  Those  of  the  two  men  (Pis.  XXXIX  and 
XL),  are  particularly  strong,  that  of  Col.  Price  ranking  with 
the  artist's  very  finest  portrait  works.  Mrs.  Price's  portrait 
(PI.  XLI)  is  very  attractive,  but  otherwise  less  satisfactory. 
We  are  told  that  Bingham  much  preferred  to  paint  men; 
for  he  felt  that  he  could  rarely  dare  to  paint  women  as  they 
actually  appeared.    He  felt  obliged  to  make  them  a  little 


Plate  XL 


Property  of  Col.  R.  B.  Price 

COL.  R.  B.  PRICE 


Plate  XLI 


Property  of  Col.  R.  B.  Price 

MRS.  R.  B  PRICE 


DUSSELDORF  PERIOD. 


75 


prettier  than  they  were.^  As  a  consequence,  we  find  his 
portraits  of  women  less  convincing,  as  a  rule,  than  those  of 
men. 

The  Thread  of  Life  was  painted  after  the  artist  was  married 
to  his  second  wife.^  Rollins  Bingham  (named  for  the  father's 
close  friend.  Major  Rollins)  was  born  in  September,  1861,^ 
and  it  seems  probable  that  the  picture  may  have  been  suggested 
by  this  occasion,  particularly  as  the  woman  represented,  though 
somewhat  idealized,  resembles  the  portrait  of  the  second  wife 
closely  enough  that  we  may  consider  her  to  have  been  the 
model.  This  painting  is,  for  Bingham,  an  unusually  academic 
piece  of  work  and  the  only  allegorical  one  which,  as  far  as 
we  know,  he  ever  produced.  A  woman  clad  in  ideal  drapery 
is  enthroned  upon  a  bank  of  clouds.  On  her  lap  stands  an 
infant  who  draws  the  thread  from  a  distaff  at  her  side,  while 
fortune,  or  the  guardian  spirit,  represented  by  the  dimly 
suggested  angel  floating  below,  guides  the  thread  onward 
through  space.  The  color  scheme  is  very  different  from  other 
paintings  by  Bingham.  It  is  no  more  naturalistic  than  usual — 
even  less  so.  But  it  is  not  of  that  flat,  neutral  type  of  his 
early  period,  nor  of  the  heavy,  dull  Diisseldorfian  character  of 
his  later  work.  It  is  made  up  of  very  light,  pale  ivory-like 
tints  of  blue,  pink  and  yellow,  so  arranged  and  harmonized  as 
to  form  a  charming  decorative  canvas. 


iLetter  from  Mrs.  Emma  King  Turner  to  Miss  May  Simonds,  Feb.  27,  1902. 
'Mrs.  E.  Hutchison,  Independence,  Mo.,  gives  this  information. 
^Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham  to  Miss  Simonds,  Mar.  1,  1902, 


76 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


1 

CHAPTER  VI.                 .  ' 

i 

CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  (1860-66). 

No  doubt  a  strong  reason  for  Bingham's  making  his  | 

second  stay  in  Europe  so  short  was  the  unsettled  condition  of  1 

his  own  country.    He  never  considered  the  duties  of  his  i 

profession  of  more  importance  than  those  he  felt  he  owed  to  i 
the  Union,  and  he  stood  ready  to  render  any  service  that 

might  be  required  of  him.  He  first  took  up  his  residence  in  j 
Kansas  City,  where  he  occupied  a  house  afterwards  used  as 

a  barrack  and  prison.    Here,  in  the  summer  of  1861,  he  served  j 

as  captain  of  what  was  known  as  the  Irish  Company  of  Van  , 

Horn's  Battalion  of  United  States  Volunteer  Reserve  Corps.  ! 

The  battalion  was  formed  to  preserve  law  and  order  in  Kansas  { 

City.    The  commissioners  of  the  Metropolitan  Police  had  been  j 

granted  extraordinary  powers  and  were  acting  independently  i 
of  the  mayor.    They  were  in  favor  of  the  cause  of  secessionists 

and  were  intolerable  toward  Unionists.    When  Major  Van  i 

Horn  took  the  other  two  companies  of  the  battalion  upon  i 

expeditions  out  through  the  country,  he  often  left  the  guarding  \ 

of  the  city  in  the  hands  of  Captain  Bingham.^  i 

We  know  that  this  was  not  Bingham's  first  service, 
however;  for  he  states  in  a  letter  written  from  the  Treas- 
urer's office  at  Jefferson  City,  August  13,  1862,  to  his  | 
sister,  Mrs.  Amanda  Barnes  of  Arrow  Rock,  that  at  the  j 
beginning  of  the  war  he  was  the  first  Missourian  in  the  border  I 
counties  to  enter  the  service  of  the  government  as  a  private.  i 
In  this  same  letter,  in  support  of  the  advice  which  he  offers  I 


»Case,  T.  S.,  History  of  Kansas  City,  p.  72/. 

Vincent,  Louella  S.,  in  the  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  Feb.  20,  1898. 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


77 


in  compliance  with  his  sister's  request  concerning  her  sons, 
he  expresses  his  views  regarding  the  war:  "In  answer  to  your 
request  in  behalf  of  the  boys  I  send  the  within  papers  which 
were  written  exclusively  by  myself  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Rebellion.  This  war,  they  may  rest  assured,  is  simply  an 
effort  of  one  party  to  destroy  the  government  established  by 
our  Fathers  and  attested  by  experience,  on  the  one  side, 
and  an  effort  to  maintain  it  by  those  who  regard  it  as  the  last 
hope  of  freedom  on  the  other  side.  The  authors  of  the 
Rebellion  knew  very  well  that  Southern  people  were  easily 
excited  upon  the  subject  of  Slavery,  and  that  lawless  efforts 
on  the  part  of  Northern  abolitionists  to  destroy  the  efficacy 
of  laws  of  Congress  in  their  favor  furnished  grounds  for  un- 
easiness. They  therefore  told  us  that  the  national  govern- 
ment was  the  enemy  of  Slavery  and  proposed  its  destruction 
in  defiance  of  the  constitution.  These  same  authors  of  the 
Rebellion,  however,  send  their  ambassadors  to  Europe,  where 
they  well  knew  that  the  public  sentiment  was  opposed  to 
Slavery,  and  these  ambassadors  are  instructed  to  tell  the 
people  there  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  a 
proslavery  government,  and  that  even  the  black  Republican 
Congress  with  but  one  dissenting  vote  had  pledged  the 
perpetuation  of  Slavery  in  states  where  it  existed.  What  they 
have  told  us,  or  what  they  have  told  the  people  of  Europe, 
one  or  the  other  must  be  false,  and  should  we  be  such  fools 
as  to  be  seduced  into  a  rebellion  against  the  government 
established  by  Washington  and  other  great  men  of  the  South 
by  the  statements  of  men  who  are  so  plainly  seen  to  be  liars? 
At  the  very  commencement  of  the  war,  I  was  the  first  Mis- 
sourian  in  the  border  counties  to  enter  the  service  of  the 
government  as  a  private.  I  have  seen  much  on  the  part  of 
men  proposing  to  be  Unionists  which  I  have  been  compelled 


78 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


to  condemn ;  but  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  professed  votaries 
of  Christianity,  and  does  this  justify  us  in  becoming  infidels? 
If  my  nephews  follow  my  advice,  those  of  them  old  enough  to 
shoulder  a  musket  and  pull  a  trigger  will  volunteer  in  the  service 
of  the  U.  S.  This  is  the  best  thing  they  can  now  do  for  them- 
selves and  country.  If  they  associate  with  Secessionists  and 
believe  their  statements,  they  will  likely  side  with  treason. 
I  would  suffer  death  sooner  than  counsel  them  to  dishonor. 
If  they  will  go  into  the  army  either  for  nine  months  or  during 
the  war  and  will  come  to  me,  I  will  assist  them."^ 

To  celebrate  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson  on  May  10, 
1861,  which  is  said  to  have  saved  Missouri  to  the  Union, 
Bingham  painted  General  Nathaniel  Lyon  and  General  Frank 
P.  Blair  Starting  from  the  Arsenal  Gate  in  St.  Louis  to  Capture 
Camp  Jackson  (PI.  XLII).  The  usual  form  of  composition  is 
used :  the  hero  upon  a  white  charger  in  the  center  of  the  picture 
and  other  figures  grouped  in  the  order  of  their  importance. 
So  General  Lyon  sits  upon  his  white  horse,  clad  in  perfectly 
fitting  uniform  and  gleaming  boots,  and,  with  cap  in  hand, 
looks  out  at  us.  Beside  him  on  a  black  horse  rides  General 
Blair,  and  behind  him  come  those  next  in  order,  the  first  of 
whom  may  be  General  Schofield.  They  are  nearing  the  river, 
beyond  which  a  burst  of  light  in  the  sky  adds  to  the  grandiose 
impression  of  the  scene.  The  composition  is  well  arranged  and 
balanced,  and  the  purpose  of  the  artist,  to  glorify  the  hero  of 
the  occasion.  General  Lyon,  is  accomplished. 

Bingham's  company  was  attached  to  Colonel  Mulligan's 
command  and  was  included  in  the  surrender  at  Lexington  in 
September,  186 1.^  He  afterward  resigned  his  office  as  captain 
and  was  appointed  State  Treasurer,  January  4,  1862,  by 


'Letter  lent  the  author  by  Mrs.  Arthxir  J.  Walter,  Adrian,  Mo. 
^Conard,  op.  cit.,  v.  I,  p.  275. 


Plate  XLII 


Property  of  the  G.  B.  Rollins  Estate 


GENERAL  LYON  AND  GENERAL  BLAIR  START- 
ING FOR  CAMP  JACKSON 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


79 


Governor  Gamble  to  fill  the  place  of  A.  W.  Morrison,  who  had 
refused  to  take  the  oath  of  loyalty.^  He  immediately  moved 
with  his  family  from  his  home  in  Kansas  City  to  Jefferson 
City,  where  he  took  up  the  work  of  the  office.  A  statement 
made  by  his  wife  in  June  of  the  following  year  to  the  effect  that 
the  responsibilities  of  the  office  were  too  great  in  proportion 
to  the  compensation  assures  us  that  Bingham  was  not  doing 
the  work  for  the  money  in  it.^  And  in  a  letter  to  her  sister, 
Mrs.  Piper,  written  from  Jefferson  City,  February  7,  1863, 
Mrs.  Bingham  tells  of  their  practice  of  economy  in  the  home: 
"Dear  little  Rollins  is  well,  and  he  looks  as  sweetly  in  his 
suit  made  of  my  old  gown  as  he  does  in  his  best  bib  and  tucker. 
Clara  has  made  him  a  pair  of  boots  out  of  that  beautiful  hood 
from  her  cloak.  When  he  gets  these  on,  together  with  mother's 
old  red  wooly  shawl  and  Lucy's  hood,  he  looks  a  picture 
worthy  of  an  artist's  son."^ 

It  was  in  May,  1862,  that  Bingham's  opposition  to  Colonel 
Jennison  began.  We  find  this  notice  in  the  Missouri  Statesman 
for  May  16:  "Mr.  Geo.  C.  Bingham,  State  Treasurer,  and 
as  honorable  and  loyal  a  citizen  as  ever  lived,  is  out  in  a  scath- 
ing expose  of  the  robberies,  raids,  murders  and  jayhawking 
of  Jennison.  It  is  a  long  but  terribly  severe  and,  we  doubt 
not,  a  truthful  document  and  cannot  fail  to  have  a  very 
damaging  effect  upon  this  prince  of  buckanies."'^  In  writing 
to  her  sister  June  20,  1863,  Mrs.  Bingham  says:  "Have  you 
seen  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Emancipation  Convention 
convened  here  some  days  since?  Mr.  Gratz  Brown  and  Mr. 
Bingham  came  almost  to  blows  during  its  sitting.    Mr.  Brown 

^Official  Manual  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  1909 — 10. 

^Letter  from  Mrs.  Bingham  to  Mrs.  Piper,  June  20,  1863 — lent  the  writer 
by  Mr.  W.  E.  Thomas,  Kansas  City. 
'Letter  lent  by  Mr.  W.  E.  Thomas. 

♦Bingham's  article  is  published  in  the  Political  History  of  the  United  States, 

V.  8. 


80 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


made  a  speech  attacking  with  furious  onslaught  Governor 
Gamble,  the  State  Officers,  Mr.  Bingham  in  particular,  and 
upholding  Jennison.  Mr.  Bingham  replied  telling  him  if  he 
did  not  upon  the  instant  take  back  the  lies  he  had  uttered,  he 
would  have  satisfaction  and  that  speedily  before  leaving  the 
Hall,  whereupon  Mr.  Brown  backed  down  and  came  to  his 
senses  in  double-quick  time."^  Whether  through  Bingham's 
influence  or  otherwise,  an  order  was  issued  July  1,  1862,  by 
the  Secretary  of  War,  rescinding  his  order  of  May  the  twenty- 
sixth  which  had  reinstated  Jennison.^  And  again  July  23, 
1865,  Jennison  was  tried  before  a  Court  Martial,  found 
guilty  of  arson,  robbery,  embezzlement,  neglect  of  duty  and 
disobedience  of  orders  and  was  commanded  "to  be  dishonorably 
dismissed  from  the  service  of  the  United  States."^  Probably 
this  attack  upon  Jennison  is  the  affair  referred  to  by  Rollins 
Bingham  in  telling  of  his  father  s  outspoken  and  fearless 
criticisms:  "He  published  severe  criticisms  upon  the  conduct 
of  Kansas  troops  and  their  officers  stationed  in  and  raiding 
through  Missouri.  He  gave  names  and  details  over  his  own 
signature.  As  a  result  he  was  sued  for  libel  and  slander  by  a 
certain  Col.  Ranson^  of  Kansas,  who  claimed  damages  to  the 
extent  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.  My  father  made  a  vigorous 
defense,  proved  his  statements  to  be  true  at  the  trial,  which 
resulted  in  a  verdict  for  the  defendant."^  The  seriousness  of 
Bingham's  attack  is  further  emphasized  by  Mrs.  Bingham  in 
her  letter  of  February  7,  1863:  "We  have  a  radical  set  here 
now  in  the  Legislature;  but  I  believe  they  are  not  in  the 
majority.    Mr.  Bingham  has  incurred  their  eternal  displeasure 


'See  note  2,  p.  79. 

^Missouri  Statesman,  July  11,  1862. 

*Ihid.,  July  7.  1865. 

*Our  italics. 

Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham  to  Miss  Simonds,  Apr.  23,  1902. 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


81 


by  his  expose  of  Jennison  and  his  misdoings  in  this  state,  and 
they  can  never  let  an  opportunity  pass  without  showing  their 
maHce  against  him,  if  Mr.  Bingham's  name  is  ever  brought  up 
in  any  movement  by  his  friends.  Assail  his  reputation  as  a 
man  they  cannot,  but  they  think  doubtless  to  do  him  infinite 
harm  by  their  criticisms  of  him  as  an  artist  and  would  literally 
pick  his  works  to  pieces  with  their  hands  if  they  had  the  power, 
as  they  think  they  now  do  with  their  tongues. — A  bill  has  been 
introduced  here  this  winter  to  give  Mr.  Bingham  another 
picture  to  paint,  but  he  will  not  get  it  if  the  radicals  can  keep 
him  from  it."^  Evidently,  the  picture  referred  to  is  the 
equestrian  portrait  of  General  Lyon,  discussed  below,  for 
which  the  artist  contracted  August  1,  1863. 

Bingham  served  his  term  as  State  Treasurer,  which 
lasted  till  1865,  with  the  strictest  integrity  during  a  time  when 
the  confusion  and  excitement  of  war  troubles  made  money 
matters  very  uncertain  and  the  acquisition  of  money  by 
officials  in  positions  of  trust  very  easy;  particularly  did  the 
treasurer's  office  offer  every  chance  for  such  without  the 
necessity  of  stooping  to  absolute  robbery.  The  state  had 
issued  millions  of  dollars  in  "Union  Defense  Warrants"  which 
bore  interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent  per  annum,  and  a 
special  tax  was  levied  to  raise  funds  for  the  redemption  of  the 
warrants,  which  were  made  redeemable  at  the  State  Treasu- 
rer's office.  At  the  time  Bingham  was  redeeming  these,  two 
years  after  they  had  been  issued,  they  had  depreciated  to 
twenty-five  cents  below  par,  which  added  to  the  interest 
would  amount  to  thirty-seven  cents  on  the  dollar.  Had 
Bingham  wished  to  make  a  fortune  off  of  these,  he  could  have 
done  it  without  robbing  the  State  Treasury  of  anything. 
St.  Louis  banks  urged  him  to  do  it,  offering  to  furnish  all  the 


'See  note  3,  p.  79. 
6 


82 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


money  necessary  and  divide  the  profits  with  him ;  but  he  was 
above  taking  advantage  of  the  people  because  of  the  oppor- 
tunity which  the  turbulent  time  offered.^  The  treasury 
kept  for  convenience  and  safety  large  sums  of  money  in  a 
St.  Louis  bank.  One  deposit  Bingham  himself  had  loaded 
into  an  ox-cart  and  taken  there  by  night  at  a  time  when  it  was 
feared  that  the  capital  city  might  be  attacked  by  the  Con- 
federates under  General  Sterling  Price.  After  Bingham  had 
finished  his  work  as  treasurer  and  had  straightened  out  his 
accounts  to  the  perfect  satisfaction  of  the  government,  the 
St.  Louis  bank  sent  him  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  it  was 
indebted  to  him  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars  in  the  form  of 
a  deposit  subject  to  his  order.  Bingham  wrote  to  the  bank 
that  it  was  a  mistake;  but  the  reply  came  that  the  amount  was 
due  him.  So  he  went  with  his  bookkeeper  to  St.  Louis  and 
after  days  of  investigation  proved  to  the  bank  that  there  was 
nothing  due  him  either  as  State  Treasurer  or  privately 

At  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office  Bingham  moved 
from  JefTerson  City  to  Independence,  where  we  find  him  in 
November,  1865,  engaged  upon  his  famous  canvas.  Order  No. 
11.^  Though  a  stanch  Unionist,  our  artist  was  as  relentless  in 
his  denunciation  of  what  he  considered  unjust  acts  on  the  part 
of  men  allied  with  his  party  as  of  those  by  members  of  the 
opposition.  When  General  Ewing  issued  his  Order  No.  11 
in  1863,  Bingham  went  to  him  with  a  plea  that  he  rescind  it, 
exclaiming  when  Ewing  refused  that  he  would  make  the  author 
of  it  infamous  with  pen  and  brush.  There  were  during  the 
early  part  of  the  war  bands  of  robbers  and  murderers  who 
continually  made  plundering  raids  from  Kansas  over  into  the 
border  counties  of  Missouri.    This  trouble  had  become  so 


"Vincent,  Louella  S.,  op.  cit. 
*Ibid. 

'Missouri  Statesman,  Nov.  24,  1865,  from  the  Kansas  City  Journal. 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


83 


serious  that  the  commanding  officers  deemed  speedy  and 
decisive  measures  necessary  to  stop  it.  Some  thought  the 
only  means  would  be  to  lay  waste  the  border  so  that  the 
source  of  shelter  and  subsistence  for  the  marauding  bands 
should  be  cut  off.  So  Brigadier-General  Ewing,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  military  district  of  "the  Border,"  issued  an 
order  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  August,  1863,  commanding  the 
removal  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  that  district,  except  those  in 
certain  localities,  within  fifteen  days.  Only  those  who  should 
establish  their  loyalty  were  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  military 
stations  in  the  district.  As  far  as  possible,  grain  and  hay  were 
to  be  taken  to  the  stations,  and  that  which  was  beyond  reach 
was  to  be  burned.  This  order  affected  several  counties  and 
parts  of  counties,  and  Unionists  suffered  along  with  the  rest 
at  the  hands  of  many  of  the  officers  and  others  pretending  to 
be  officers  who  executed  the  order.  Bingham  felt  that  such  a 
severe  measure  was  not  necessary.  He  said  that  "it  did, 
indeed,  put  an  end  to  the  predatory  raids  of  Kansas  red-legs 
and  jay  hawkers  by  surrendering  to  them  all  that  they  coveted, 
leaving  nothing  that  could  further  excite  their  cupidity,  but  it 
gave  up  the  country  to  bushwhackers,  who,  until  the  close  of 
the  war,  continued  to  stop  the  stages  and  rob  the  mails  and 
passengers;  and  no  one  wearing  the  federal  uniform  dared  to 
risk  his  life  within  the  desolated  district."^  This  order,  to- 
gether with  several  other  disgraceful  affairs  for  which  Bingham 
believed  Ewing  to  be  responsible,  made  the  artist  Ewing's 
bitter  enemy. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  the  log  cabin  which  Bingham  is 
said  to  have  used  for  a  studio  while  painting  Order  No.  11 
and  some  other  works  was  still  standing,  though  with  sky- 

»From  Bingham's  answer  to  Gen.  Schofield,  quoted  by  Miss  Simonds  in 
Missouri  History  as  Illustrated  by  Geo.  C.  Bingham,  published  in  the  Missouri 
Historical  Review,  v.  I,  p.  181  if. 


84 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


lights  battered  out  and  in  bad  condition  generally.^  In  1865, 
he  began  painting  the  picture  (PI.  XLIII),  and  it  was  not 
completed  until  1868.  We  are  told  that,  unable  to  obtain  a 
canvas  large  enough,  he  began  the  work  upon  a  wooden  panel, 
which  was  soon  found  to  be  cracking;  so  he  prepared 
a  piece  of  tablecloth  and  used  it  for  his  canvas.^  Mrs. 
J.  W.  Mercer  of  Independence,  Missouri,  now  owns,  pos- 
sibly, what  is  referred  to  as  the  "wooden  panel."  The 
painting  is  not  done  directly  on  the  panel,  but  on  a 
canvas  stretched  over  a  panel,  which  in  cracking  has 
injured  the  canvas  also.  As  we  see  it  today  this  picture  is 
quite  complete,  though  it  may  not  have  been  finished  until  after 
the  painting  on  the  tablecloth.  The  latter  was  given  by 
Bingham,  a  few  years  after  its  completion,  to  two  of  his  friends. 
Colonel  R.  B.  Price  and  Major  James  S.  Rollins,  because  he 
saw  no  hope  of  being  able  to  pay  back  a  loan  which  he  had  ob- 
tained from  them  in  order  to  have  an  engraving  made  of  the 
work.  This  painting  is  now  owned  by  the  estate  of  the  late 
George  Bingham  Rollins  of  Columbia.  The  two  paintings 
are  approximately  the  same  size  (about  six  and  a  half  by  four 
and  a  half  feet)  and  there  are  no  striking  differences  in  the 
compositions.  In  the  few  differences  that  do  occur,  in  such 
details  as  the  position  of  the  head  of  the  prostrate  young 
woman  in  the  foreground  and  the  costume  of  the  woman 
with  her  arms  about  her  father,  Mrs.  Mercer's  painting  shows 
divergences  from  the  engraving,  while  the  other  agrees  with  it 
in  every  detail.  This  makes  it  clear  that  the  engraving  was 
made  from  the  Rollins  painting. 

The  composition  of  Order  No,  11  follows  the  same  general 
arrangement  which  we  found  in  the  compositions  of  the 


^Kansas  City  Star,  Oct.  6,  1901. 
sCol.  R.  B.  Price. 


Property  of  Mr.  Jl'.  E.  Thomas 

MAJOR  DEAN  IN  JAIL 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


85 


"election  series,"  the  large  mass  of  the  picture  built  up  at 
one  side  and  extending  out  to  a  little  beyond  the  center,  then 
an  open  space,  and  at  the  other  side  a  smaller  mass.  Here 
we  are  allowed  to  look  away  out  into  the  distance  and  see  the 
funeral-like  processions  of  people  wending  their  way  across 
the  plains,  and  the  fires  and  clouds  of  smoke  outlining  them- 
selves against  the  horizon.  All  of  this  aids  the  artist  in  his 
attempt  to  explain  that  the  scene  in  the  foreground  is  only  one 
of  many  of  its  kind.  There  the  main  light  falls  upon  a  little 
family  group  out-of-doors  near  their  home.  A  crowd  of  red- 
legs  is  close  behind  them,  and  on  a  horse  in  the  center  of  the 
group  is  an  officer  who  is  said  to  represent  Ewing  himself.^ 
One  cowardly  fellow  holds  in  his  hand  the  revolver  with  which 
he  has  just  shot  a  young  man  of  the  family;  another  is  in  the 
act  of  drawing  his  revolver  to  kill  the  gray-haired  old  patriarch, 
who  with  clinched  fist  and  enraged  face  is  pouring  forth  his 
indignation  upon  the  perpetrators  of  such  injustice.  A  daugh- 
ter clings  to  his  neck,  begging  him  to  submit  rather  than  lose 
his  life.  A  little  grandson  tugs  at  his  leg,  realizing  that  some- 
thing is  wrong  though  he  cannot  understand  it  all,  while 
another  daughter  kneels  before  the  officer,  praying  for  her 
father's  life.  The  mother  has  fainted  in  the  nurse's  arms, 
the  young  wife  has  fallen  upon  the  dead  body  of  her  husband, 
and  to  the  extreme  right  two  terrified  negro  servants  hurry 
away.  In  contrast  to  this  tragic  scene  the  plunderers  behind 
it  go  about  their  work  of  stripping  the  house  of  its  furnishings 
in  the  most  calm,  cold-blooded  manner,  piling  their  wagons 
high  with  their  pillage.  Bingham  has  not  limited  himself  to 
any  one  particular  scene,  he  only  wishes  to  give  a  type;  so  he 
has  not  tried  to  represent  it  naturalistically  in  every  point; 


'Bingham,  Rollins,  Bingham  and  his  Missouri  Art — published  in  the 
Kansas  City  Star,  Dec.  5,  1909, 


86 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


he  has  put  the  Hghts  where  they  best  help  to  tell  the  story  and 
arranged  the  whole  with  that  end  in  view.  In  his  vigorous 
article  written  a  few  years  later(1871)  in  defense  of  this  picture, 
he  clearly  states  his  belief  that  there  is  no  nobler  employment 
for  the  artist  than  that  of  making  his  art  the  handmaid  of 
history.  He  explains  that  his  purpose  in  painting  the  picture 
was  not  to  bring  discredit  upon  the  Union  cause  nor  ''to 
keep  alive  base  and  malignant  passions  engendered  by  war," 
but  rather  to  keep  before  the  minds  of  the  people,  as  a  warning, 
the  awful  results  which  come  from  the  abusive  use  of  military 
rule,  remembering  that  hatred  of  tyranny  means  love  of  liberty. 
He  also  discusses  at  length  the  conditions  of  affairs  in  the  border 
counties  at  the  time  the  order  was  issued  and  gives  his  reasons 
for  being  so  firmly  convinced  that  the  order  was  unnecessary 
and  infamously  unjust.^ 

He  was  most  successful  in  keeping  fresh  a  hatred  of  the 
act  and  itsinstigator ;  for  not  only  was  the  painting  exhibited  to 
thousands,  but  engravings  were  made  of  it  (in  1872),  and 
distributed  far  and  wide.  When  General  Ewing  was  running 
for  the  governorship  of  Ohio,  Bingham  supplemented  his 
fiery  articles,  which  he  published  in  papers,  with  exhibitions 
of  his  painting  in  that  state,  and  thus,  it  is  said,  he  was  the 
cause  of  Ewing's  defeat.^  A  contemporary  critic  of  Bingham 
and  defender  of  Ewing  says  that  Bingham's  great  mistake  was 
that  he  judged  the  soldier  from  the  civilian's  standpoint, 
that  he  applied  Christian  principles  to  war,  when  war  meant 
the  destructive  modes  and  processes  of  the  devil  Perhaps 
this  is  true;  but  friends  of  the  artist  will  answer  that  war 

iBingham,  Geo.  C,  An  Address  to  the  Public  Vindicating  a  Work  of  Art 
Illustrative  of  the  Federal  Military  Policy  in  Missouri  during  the  late  Civil  War. 
Kansas  City,  Mo.,  1871. 

2Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins. 

^Missouri  Statesman,  Mar.  29,  1878,  from  the  Sedalia  Democrat. 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD. 


87 


might  be  of  a  less  fiendish  nature  if  such  honest,  noble  men  as 
Bingham  were  allowed  to  have  more  of  the  management 
of  it. 

The  artist  was  engaged  in  July,  1866,  upon  another  work 
of  a  similar  character,  with  a  similar  purpose  in  view,  when 
he  was  painting  a  picture  of  Major  Dean,  a  preacher  and  an 
ardent  Union  soldier,  in  his  cell  in  the  Independence  jail, 
where  he  was  placed  for  preaching  without  having  taken  the 
oath  of  loyalty.^  The  picture  (PI.  XLIV),  is  painted  in  oil 
upon  a  piece  of  drawing  paper,  about  nine  by  eleven  inches, 
which  has  been  spliced  and  pasted  on  cardboard,  making  it 
fourteen  inches  square.  The  preacher,  serious  and  composed, 
sits  in  the  corner  of  his  cell  beside  a  heavily  barred  window 
through  which  the  light  falls  upon  an  open  book  which  he 
reads.  At  his  feet  lies  a  Baptist  Journal',  and  a  blanket,  to- 
gether with  a  bare  mattress,  fills  out  the  space  and  completes 
a  well-balanced  composition.  The  painting  is  remarkably 
carefully  and  minutely  finished  for  work  on  such  scrappy, 
perishable  material — and  again  we  are  impressed  with  Bing- 
ham's perseverance  in  spite  of  all  material  difficulties. 


ij&id.,  July  6,  1866,  from  the  St.  Louis  Dispatch. 


88 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


CHAPTER  VII.  I 

LATER  WORK  IN  PAINTING  AND  POLITICS  (1866-79).  ' 

In  1866,  Bingham  again  became  involved  in  politics, 
submitting  his  name  to  the  Congressional  nominating  com- 
mittee as  candidate  from  the  sixth  district.    He  promised  to 
abide  by  the  decision  of  the  committee  and  to  support  the 
nominee;  and  when  he  was  defeated  and  Judge  Birch  was 
nominated  instead  of  him,  he  kept  his  promise.    It  was  the  j 
cause,  he  said,  and  not  the  man,  for  which  he  was  working.^  j 
Eight  years  later,  when  running  for  the  same  office  in  the  1 
eighth  district,  he  withdrew  his  name  before  the  convention  | 
which  had  met  to  make  its  nominations  rather  than  take  the 
oath  to  support  the  nominee,  because  he  considered  one  of 
his  competitors  a  man  unworthy  of  his  support.^    So  we 
find  that  he  did  not  actually  count  the  man  of  no  importance  in  ' 
comparison  with  the  cause.    In  1868,  he  was  appointed  by 
the  Democratic  convention  Elector  for  the  sixth  district;^  | 
for,  though  he  had  been  a  stanch  Whig  before  and  during  the  , 
war,  having  held  that  the  war  was  justifiable  only  upon  the  I 
grounds  set  forth  in  the  Crittenden  Resolutions,  the  departure  ! 
therefrom  by  the  government  caused  him  to  ally  himself  with  | 
the  Democratic  party,  where  he  stood  from  that  time.^ 

During  his  residence  in  Independence  he  devoted  much 
of  his  time  to  portraiture,  making  frequent  trips  out  over  the  j 
state,  stopping  at  the  larger  towns  to  execute  orders.    His  | 

leisure  moments  at  home  were  spent  in  the  out-of-doors  I 

  i 

'Ibid.,  June  1  and  Oct.  5,  1866.  ] 

*IMd.,  Aug.  28,  1874.  | 

9J6td.,  June  5.  1868.  , 

*Art  Interchange,  June,  1896.  | 


LATER  WORK. 


89 


walking  about  his  place  and  working  at  gardening  and  bee- 
culture  on  the  large  tract  of  land  which  he  had.^  One  service 
which  we  have  record  of  his  rendering  his  town  is  that  of 
acting  upon  the  school  board  in  1869.^ 

August  1,  1863,  he  had  entered  into  a  contract  with  the 
Secretary  of  State  to  paint  a  life-sized  or  larger  equestrian 
portrait  of  Brigadier-General  Nathaniel  Lyon  for  the  capitol 
building  at  Jefferson  City.^  The  contract  was  made  in  pursu- 
ance of  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  which 
appropriated  nothing  from  the  treasury  for  the  purpose, 
but  designated  that  the  Secretary  of  State  should  solicit 
subscriptions  and  engage  a  competent  artist.  At  the  time  the 
commission  was  given  to  Bingham  five  hundred  and  fifty-four 
dollars  had  been  collected  and  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  had  been  subscribed  but  not  paid.  The  contract  stated 
that  Bingham,  upon  the  completion  of  the  work,  should  be 
paid  twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  or  as  much  of  this  sum  as 
should  have  been  collected  at  that  time.  The  artist  was  not 
limited  as  to  time  for  the  execution  of  the  work,  and  not  until 
November,  1865,  had  he  made  his  small  study  for  the  picture, 
a  photograph  of  which  he  submitted  for  inspection  to  the 
speaker  of  the  House  and  other  friends  of  the  work,  not, 
it  is  worth  while  to  note,  soliciting  suggestions  and  criticisms 
from  them,  but  saying  only,  "In  the  large  picture  I  can 
make  any  improvements  which  may  suggest  themselves  to 
my  judgment."  In  this  communication  he  also  expressed 
his  purpose  to  complete  the  work  in  the  course  of  the  next 
summer,  adding  the  suggestion  that  in  the  meantime  some 
measure  be  adopted  to  provide  for  the  completion  of  the 


'Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham  to  Miss  May  Simonds,  June  18,  1902. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Oct.  1,  1869. 
•See  p.  81. 


90 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


subscription.^  A  lock  of  the  General's  hair,  portraits  of  him,  ! 
and  descriptions  of  his  horse  had  been  furnished  Bingham  for 

the  study.  The  date  of  the  delivery  to  the  capitol  is  not  i 
known,  but  we  are  told  that  he  finished  it  in  a  much  shorter 

time  than  he  was  wont  to  do  when  fulfilling  such  large  com-  \ 
missions — that  he  painted  the  picture  in  five  weeks.^ 

A  portrait  of  Rollins  Bingham  (PI.  XLV),  represents  i 

the  artist's  son  at  about  six  years  of  age.    It  is  stated  above  I 

that  the  child  was  born  in  1861 ;  so  the  portrait  was  painted  in  ] 
about  1867  probably  in  his  first  school  days,  suggested  by 

the  book  which  he  holds  under  his  arm.    He  is  an  intelligent  [ 

little  fellow  with  blue  eyes  and  golden  hair,  and  he  looks  , 

out  at  us  with  the  frankness  and  interest  peculiar  to  child-  ! 

hood.    Another  child's  portrait,  painted  two  years  later,  in  ] 

1869,  is  of  little  John  J.  Mastin  at  eighteen  months.    Most  I 

of  the  work  was  done  from  a  photograph,  because  the  artist's  ' 

peculiar  appearance  in  his  painting  garb  and  surroundings  j 

frightened  the  child.    The  full-length  figure  of  the  child  is  1 

portrayed;  he  is  clothed  in  a  red  dress,  and  he  sits  with  his  j 
legs  crossed  and  his  right  hand  resting  on  a  little  dog.  The 

background  is  an  ideal  arrangement  of  trees  and  architectural  j 
forms,  and  the  whole  picture  is  lacking  in  the  impression  of 

reality  which  we  find  in  the  portrait  of  the  artist's  son.    A  i 

portrait  of  John  J.  Mastin's  father,  Thomas  H.  Mastin,  was  | 

also  made  in  1869.    Here,  as  in  the  portraits  made  earlier  \ 

in  this  decade,  we  find  the  use  of  deeply  colored  drapery  in  the  i 

background,  and  the  work  upon  the  face  is  straightforward  and  I 

convincing.  { 

In  May  of  1871,  Bingham  had  finished  for  the  General's  ; 

friends  a  large  portrait  of  General  Frank  P.  Blair,  United  I 

  ,1 

^Journal  of  the  Adjourned  Session  of  the  23rd  General  Assembly  of  Missouri,  I 
appendix,  p.  855#. 

»NeflP,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 


Plate  XLV 


Property  of  Mrs.  E.  Hutchison 

ROLLINS  BINGHAM 


LATER  WORK. 


91 


States  Senator.  He  must  have  been  engaged  upon  the  canvas 
in  1869;  for  we  are  told  in  connection  with  the  picture  of  John 
J.  Mastin,  discussed  above,  that  the  artist  was  working  upon 
a  portrait  of  General  Blair  at  the  time  he  was  painting  the 
child's.^  The  portrait  was  exhibited  in  St.  Louis  and  Columbia 
before  being  sent  to  its  final  destination.  Though  it  is  said 
to  have  been  intended  for  the  State  Capitol,  it  hangs  today  in 
the  Mercantile  Library  beside  the  portrait  of  Baron  von 
Humboldt.  According  to  a  statement  made  by  the  artist's 
son  in  1902,  a  study  for  the  portrait  was  then  in  the  possession 
of  Mrs.  James  M.  Piper  of  Kansas  City.^  This  study  is  now 
owned  by  Mrs.  F.  P.  Blair  of  Chicago. 

In  about  1870,  Bingham  spent  several  weeks  at  the  home 
of  his  friend,  Mr.  Kinney  of  New  Franklin,  and  four  portraits 
in  the  home  today  show  the  result  of  his  work  there.  Two 
of  these  are  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kinney;  the  others  are  of  Mr. 
Kinney's  son  and  daughter,  painted  together  on  a  large  canvas. 
They  are  described  as  being  very  stiff  and  poor  likenesses.^ 

In  May  of  1870,  Bingham  sold  his  home  in  Independence 
for  ten  thousand  dollars,^  and  Kansas  City  was  his  home  for 
the  rest  of  his  life.  He  frequently  made  extended  visits  and 
trips  out  of  the  city,  but  he  never  again  owned  a  house  any- 
where else. 

In  this  year  also  we  find  the  only  record  of  any  pupil  of 
Bingham:  ''Charles  P.  Stewart,  the  artist,  has  gone  to  Kansas 
City  to  study  the  profession  and  practice  it  beneath  the  eye 
of  the  Missouri  Master  in  painting,  Mr.  G.  C.  Bingham.  Mr. 
Stewart  has  already  gained  much  popularity  in  his  profession 

'Mrs.  Thos.  H.  Mastin. 

•Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham  to  Miss  May  Simonds,  June  18,  1902. 
•Miss  Alice  Kinney,  New  Franklin,  Mo. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  May  6,  1870. 


92 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


and  is  on  the  road  to  greater  successes."^  This  was  pubUshed 
on  July  the  fifteenth,  and  on  the  sixth  of  September  he  returned 
to  Columbia.2  Whether  this  was  the  only  time  Stewart 
worked  under  Bingham  we  do  not  know.  He  seems  to  have 
painted  only  portraits,  but  those  are  of  a  fair  quality. 

When  Bingham  went  to  Columbia,  as  he  frequently  did 
all  through  his  professional  life,  he  was  always  heartily  wel- 
comed and  shown  most  generous  hospitality  by  his  close 
friends,  among  whom  were  Colonel  R.  B.  Price  and  Major 
James  S.  Rollins.  Major  Rollins  was  his  most  intimate  and 
helpful  friend  through  most  of  his  life.  In  his  very  early 
years,  when  Bingham  undertook  the  procuring  of  an  art 
education,  we  found  his  young  lawyer  friend  lending  him 
money  and  encouraging  him  in  his  attempts.^  And  never  did 
this  true  friend  fail.  As  a  State  Senator  he  used  every  effort 
for  the  passage  of  the  bill  introduced  by  the  House,  providing 
for  the  payment  of  Bingham's  expenses  which  he  had  been 
forced  to  incur  through  the  defense  of  his  seat  in  the  House 
to  which  he  had  been  regularly  elected  in  1846.'*  He  was 
always  ready  to  lend  money  for  the  engraving  of  his  friend's 
pictures.  He  often  defended  him  against  criticisms,  and  he 
gave  him  a  place  in  his  home  for  months  at  a  time.  Upon  the 
artist's  last  visit  to  Major  Rollins'  home,  when  the  latter 
casually  remarked,  "Bingham,  if  I  had  your  genius,  I  would  be 
a  millionaire,"  Bingham  rejoined  with  a  heart  full  of  gratitude, 
asking  what  need  he  had  of  money  when  he  had  a  friend  who 
was  always  on  the  lookout  for  his  welfare.^  Dr.  Smith,  in  his 
Memoirs  of  James  Sidney  Rollins,  cites  the  peculiar  friendship  of 

^Ibid.,  July  15,  1870. 
*Ibid.,  Sept.  9,  1870. 
»See  p.  20. 

*Missouri  Statesman,  Mar.  16,  1849. 
•Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins. 


Plate  XLVI 


Property  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins 

MAJOR  JAMES  S.  ROLLINS 


Plate  XL VI I 


LATER  WORK. 


93 


Rollins  and  Bingham  as  very  noteworthy.  The  tender  attach- 
ment, the  gratitude  and  the  obligation,  never  considered  a 
burden,  which  are  expressed  in  the  artist's  letters  to  Rollins 
are  alluded  to  by  the  author.^  A.  J.  Conant,  in  his  speech  in 
behalf  of  the  Board  of  Curators  of  the  University  upon  the 
presentation  of  the  portrait  of  Rollins  (painted  by  Bingham) 
by  the  people  of  Columbia,  also  speaks  of  the  great  friendship 
of  the  two:  .and  next  to  his  own  kith  and  kin,  each  by 
the  other  has  been  the  best  beloved.  Together  they  have 
traveled  life's  pathway;  side  by  side  they  have  labored,  contrib- 
uting in  the  Legislature  and  out  of  it,  as  best  they  might,  all 
the  power  of  their  united  personal  influence  to  promote  the 
best  interests  of  the  great  commonwealth.  In  political  life, 
in  patriotic  action,  they  have  been  one;  and  in  sentiment  and 
affection,  like  David  and  Jonathan,  they  have  been  united  by 
ties  most  intimate  and  tender. 

The  portrait  referred  to  above  was  ordered  by  friends 
of  Major  Rollins  for  the  University  building,  and  Bingham 
was  in  Columbia  working  upon  it  October  13,  1871,  and  it 
had  been  recently  completed  April  11,  1873.^  It  was  a  life- 
sized  portrait  representing  the  Pater  Universitatis  standing 
in  the  attitude  of  delivering  a  speech,  a  motive  suggested  by 
his  extended  services  in  the  Legislature  and  Congress.  A 
window  at  one  side  disclosed  a  view  of  the  University,  so 
recalling  his  acts  which  brought  so  much  benefit  to  that 
institution.  The  work  was  enthusiastically  lauded  at  the 
time  as  the  artist's  highest  attainment  in  portraiture.  And 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  his  great  affection  for  the  man 
and  his  familiarity  with  his  features  and  characteristics  should 


iSmith.  W.  B..  Memoirs  of  James  Sidney  Rollins,  p.  72/. 
^Ibid.,  p.  302/. 

'Missouri  Statesman,  Oct.  13,  1871,  and  Apr.  11,  1873. 


94 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


have  enabled  him  to  reach  the  zenith  of  his  power  as  a  portrait 
painter  in  this  picture.  It  was  destroyed  in  the  University 
fire  of  1892;  but  a  small  study  in  oil  (PI.  XLVI)  remains. 
This,  though  much  darkened  and  worn,  may  give  some  sugges- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  finished  work.  As  in  the  Humboldt 
portrait,  the  treatment  of  the  body  here  is  a  little  weak,  the 
great  attention  being  given  to  the  head,  which  is  very  complete- 
ly portrayed  and  is  full  of  the  expression  of  noble,  statesman- 
like character.  A  bust  portrait  (PI.  XLVI  I),  done  at  about 
the  same  time  and  probably  serving  as  another  study  for  the 
large  painting,  is  better  preserved  and  gives  a  clearer  presenta- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  subject.  The  splendid  qualities 
of  this  work  are  very  evident  in  our  reproduction  and  need  no 
further  comment. 

To  this  period  belong  also  the  portraits  of  Major  Rollins' 
wife  and  daughter.  That  of  Mrs.  Rollins  (PI.  XLVI  1 1),  in 
general  arrangement  and  technical  treatment,  is  strongly 
reminiscent  of  the  portrait  of  Mrs.  Price  (PI.  XLI),  painted 
ten  years  earlier.  But  it  is  a  little  freer  in  pose,  the  handling 
of  the  light  and  shade  is  better,  the  modelling  of  the  face  and 
neck  more  complete,  and  it  is  more  satisfactory  as  a  whole. 
The  portrait  of  Sallie  Rodes  Rollins  (PI.  XLIX),  painted  soon 
after  her  death,  which  occurred  in  December,  1872,^  is  the  most 
academic  and  chromo-like  of  all  the  known  work  of  the  artist. 
There  is  far  less  character  expressed  than  in  the  portrait  of 
the  mother.  The  artist  has  not  attempted  a  careful  modelling 
of  the  form  and  features;  his  principal  aim  has  been  to  express 
daintiness  and  beauty.  The  fact  that  he  did  not  have  the 
living  model  before  him  is  probably,  in  large  part,  the  cause  of 
the  academic  treatment. 


^Ibid.,  Dec.  6,  1872. 


Plate  XLVIII 


Property  o'f  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins 

MRS.  JAMES  S.  ROLLINS 


Plate  XL  IX 


Property  of  Mr.  C.  B.  R'jllins 

MISS  S  ALL  IE  RODES  ROLLINS 


LATER  WORK. 


95 


Some  sketches  owned  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  which  were 
done  by  Bingham  while  he  was  in  Major  Rollins'  home,  show 
his  interest  in  two  branches  of  art  which  we  have  found  but 
little  represented  in  his  work  elsewhere,  the  academic  nude 
and  the  religious.  We  have  found  academic  treatment  before, 
and  there  is  a  nude  child  in  The  Thread  of  Life.  But  these 
sketches  include  two  reclining  nude  female  figures  which  would 
seem  to  have  been  suggested  by  Giorgione's  Venus,  a  standing 
nude  in  the  attitude  of  the  Venus  de  Medici  and  a  seated  one 
in  almost  the  same  attitude.  These  figures  are  rather  care- 
fully drawn,  but  they  are  too  heavy,  coarse  and  clumsy  in 
proportions.  The  religious  subject  represents  Christ  and 
Mary  in  the  Garden.  Mary  assumes  almost  the  same  posture 
as  one  of  the  figures  in  Order  No.  11;  she  kneels  before  Christ 
with  her  arms  raised  in  supplication  and  her  face  full  of 
yearning.  Christ's  face  is  not  so  good;  he  looks  down  upon 
Mary  with  an  amiable  but  not  essentially  loving  or  devout 
expression.  The  extremities  are  poorly  drawn,  and  the 
drapery  appears  to  have  given  trouble ;  it  is  much  worked  over 
with  hesitating  strokes  and  is  not  good  at  last.  A  cow  grazing 
and,  particularly,  an  old  woman  reading  and  a  number  of 
heads  of  men  are  the  best  things  among  these  sketches.  Less 
labored  in  finish,  they  appear  to  have  been  dashed  off  rapidly, 
and  with  a  few  strokes  the  character  is  plainly  expressed. 
Some  of  the  heads  are  much  like  work  in  the  St.  Louis  Mercan- 
tile Library  sketchbook,  though  less  carefully  finished. 

October  26, 1872,  a  communication  from  Denver,  Colorado, 
states  that  Bingham  has  finished  his  latest  picture,  a  View 
of  Pike's  Peak  (PI.  L),  which,  the  writer  promises,  will  soon  be 
in  St.  Louis. ^  It  is  a  large  picture,  about  three  and  a  half  by 
five  feet.    The  artist  has  chosen  a  view  which  brings  the 


^Ibid.,  Nov.  22,  1872,  from  a  letter  to  the  Missouri  Republican. 


96 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


highest  point  of  the  peak  a  little  to  the  left  of  the  center  of  the 
picture.  The  sun  is  pouring  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  scene 
in  the  foreground,  except  for  a  few  spots  where  it  is  cut  off 
by  the  fleecy  clouds.  Down  over  the  rocks  at  the  right  flows 
a  stream  of  water,  bubbling  and  foaming  in  little  cascades, 
while  in  the  quieter  parts  the  rocks  are  mirrored  on  its  surface. 
There  is  some  vegetation  visible,  particularly  at  the  left; 
but  it  is  all  of  a  hardy  variety,  scrubby  and  sparsely  leaved, 
as  we  should  expect  in  such  bare,  bleak  surroundings.  At 
the  left,  on  a  rock  among  the  trees  in  a  path  of  sunlight  sits  an 
Indian,  quietly  resting,  with  a  rifle  in  his  hand  and  feathers  in 
his  hair.  His  form  is  not  made  conspicuous,  no  more  so  than 
one  of  the  trees.  In  spite  of  all  the  interest  in  the  fore- 
ground, the  lofty  snow-capped  peak  towering  behind  it  domi- 
nates the  picture.  In  painting  this  canvas,  as  well  as  his  other 
landscapes,  the  artist,  we  are  told,  made  many  sketches  from 
nature  in  pencil  and  oil,  representing  the  scene  in  the  varying 
efi^ects  of  atmosphere,  and  finally  from  these  sketches  he 
painted  the  pictures  in  his  studio.  Portfolios  containing  a 
great  many  such  sketches  were  in  existence  a  short  time  before 
the  artist's  death ;  but  they  have  since  been  destroyed  or  lost.^ 
Probably  the  Pike's  Peak,  two  and  a  half  by  four  and  a  half 
feet,  owned  by  Mr.  R.  S.  Thomas  of  Blue  Springs,  was  one  of 
the  studies  for  the  large  canvas. 

Bingham  made  a  number  of  other  paintings  of  Colorado 
landscapes  during  his  summer's  stay  there;  but  they  were  not 
such  large  undertakings  as  the  Pike's  Peak}  Artists  and  art 
lovers  had  not  yet  got  away  from  the  idea  that  the  ordinary 
bit  of  landscape  is  not  worthy  of  such  care  and  labor  on  the 
part  of  the  artist  as  is  some  marvel  of  nature  such  as  a  great 


'Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham  to  Miss  May  Simonds,  June  18,  1902. 
'See  note  1. 


LATER  WORK. 


97 


mountain  peak.  In  1902,  four  of  these  Colorado  landscapes 
were  owned,  says  Rollins  Bingham,  by  Mrs.  J.  M.  Piper. ^ 
Perhaps  these  are  identical  with  some  of  the  pictures  which 
pass  under  such  names  as  Moonlight  Scene,  Winter  Sce^ie,  and 
simply  Landscape  Views  (see  appendix) , 

December  11,  1874,  the  painting.  Puzzled  Witness  (PI.  LI), 
still  lacking  a  few  finishing  touches,  was  on  exhibition  in  St. 
Louis.2  It  is  another  picture  of  western  life,  which  might  be 
classed  along  with  the  "election  series."  At  a  table,  which 
occupies  the  center  of  the  picture,  sit  the  two  attorneys.  To 
our  right  stands  the  puzzled  witness,  scratching  his  head  in 
his  perplexity,  while  the  dog  at  his  feet  shares  in  his  bewilder- 
ment. Close  about  is  a  crowd  of  spectators,  some  only  curious, 
others,  either  in  a  critical  or  a  sympathetic  manner,  intently 
interested  in  the  trial.  Above,  at  his  high  bench,  sits  the  all- 
important  fat  old  judge,  with  water  pitcher  and  glass  at  hand, 
careful,  as  always,  for  his  physical  comfort.  The  composition 
is  built  up  in  the  common  pyramidal  form;  but  the  apex, 
which  is  formed  by  the  judge,  is  not  the  point  of  greatest 
interest.  It  is  placed  somewhat  in  the  shadow,  while  the 
greater  light  falls  upon  the  witness.  The  interesting  dog  in 
this  picture  recalls  the  remark  often  made  that  Bingham  always 
had  a  dog  in  his  genre  pictures.  The  Jolly  Flatboatmen  is 
one  exception.  When  asked  why  he  had  failed  to  represent 
one  here,  he  replied,  "I  have  not,  the  dog  is  in  the  hold."^ 

In  1874  Bingham  served  upon  Kansas  City's  first  board 
of  Police  Commissioners.  Hon.  H.  J.  Latshaw  was  chosen 
president  of  the  board  April  the  fifteenth,  but  he  resigned  May 
the  eleventh,  and  Bingham  was  chosen  to  succeed  him.'* 

'Ibid. 

^Missouri  Statesman,  Dec.  11,  1874. 

^Col.  R.  B.  Price. 

'Case.  T.  S.,  op.  cit.,  p.  214. 

7 


98 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


During  his  term  of  office  he  was  unyielding  in  the  enforcement 
of  the  law.  Even  before  his  appointment  he  had  in  January 
brought  suit  against  a  certain  Michael  Dively  for  permitting 
a  gambling  house  to  be  kept  on  his  premises.^ 

It  was  also  in  1874  that  Bingham  submitted  his  name, 
at  the  urgent  request  of  a  large  number  of  citizens  of  Kansas 
City,  as  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  the  eighth  district,  and 
then  withdrew  his  name  before  the  convention  because  he  could 
not  conscientiously  take  an  oath  to  support  his  opponent  in 
case  the  latter  should  receive  the  nomination.^  But  Charles 
H.  Hardin  was  elected  governor  in  this  campaign,  and  in 
January,  1875,  Bingham  received  from  him  the  appointment  of 
Adjutant-General  of  Missouri.  He  did  not  remove  his  family 
from  Kansas  City,  but  he  boarded  in  Jefferson  City  during  the 
time  that  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  be  at  the  capitol. 

"In  addition  to  the  regular  work  of  the  office,"  says 
General  Bingham  in  his  report  submitted  December  31,  1876, 
"largely  increased  labors  were  imposed  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment in  the  revision  and  verification  of  the  lists  of  deceased 
soldiers  of  Missouri  interred  in  the  National  cemeteries. 
The  lists  furnished  for  that  purpose,  upon  comparison  with 
the  original  records,  were  found  to  contain  numerous  errors 
and  omissions,  and  the  only  way  by  which  satisfactory  cor- 
rections could  be  made  was  to  compare  each  individual  name, 
and  in  many  instances  to  examine  all  the  rolls  of  each  organiza- 
tion mustered  into  the  service."  These  lists  submitted  to 
General  Bingham  for  correction  in  connection  with  the 
preparation  of  inscriptions  for  permanent  headstones  to  be 
erected  at  the  graves  of  Union  soldiers  contained  the  names  of 
forty-one  hundred  soldiers  whose  remains  were  buried  in 


^Missouri  Statesman,  Jan.  23,  1874. 
^See  p.  88. 


LATER  WORK. 


99 


thirty-three  National  cemeteries.  Original  records  had  been 
obtained  from  friends  and  comrades  and  from  headstones 
placed  at  the  graves  at  the  time  of  the  burial.  On  these 
headstones  were  often  rudely  inscribed  with  a  sharp  bayonet 
or  knife  only  a  partial  or  a  wholly  illegible  name  or  monogram. 

Then  Bingham  began  at  once  the  investigations  of  the 
war  claims  and  found  that  many  companies  were  applying 
for  large  sums  of  money  when  the  muster  and  pay  roll  vouchers 
representing  the  claims  were  defective,  or  there  were  no  vouch- 
ers for  the  companies  in  the  office  and  no  indications  of  their 
having  served.  Also  many  persons  were  taking  advantage 
of  the  act  of  Congress  of  1873,  whereby  all  soldiers  who  had 
served  in  the  United  States  army  not  less  than  ninety  days,  had 
received  honorable  discharge  and  had  subsequently  home- 
steaded  less  than  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  under  the 
homestead  act  of  May  20,  1862,  and  made  final  proof  thereof 
were  entitled  to  an  additional  homestead,  provided  it  together 
with  the  original  one  did  not  exceed  a  hundred  and  sixty 
acres.  Applications  were  made  by  individuals  whose  names 
were  not  on  the  rolls  in  the  office,  by  many  who  said  they 
belonged  to  regiments  which  never  existed,  and  by  other 
equally  ineligible  persons.^  Bingham's  thorough  investiga- 
tion and  his  exposures  in  the  matter  caused  much  excitement 
and  comment.  A  pun  in  one  of  the  papers  of  the  day  is, 
"If  Geo.  C.  Bingham,  Adjutant-General,  is  not  the  'head 
center'  of  Hardin's  administration,  it  cannot  be  questioned 
that  he  is  the  'head  scenter'  of  the  fraudulent  military  claims. 

About  four  months  in  the  early  part  of  1876  Bingham 
spent  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  working  to  get  a  bill  through 
Congress  providing  for  the  payment  to  Missouri  of  money 


^Missouri  Adjutant-General's  Report,  1875-76. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Nov.  12,  1875. 


100 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


which  the  state  had  paid  out  to  state  troops  serving  in  co- 
operation with  United  States  forces  during  the  war.  Up  to 
this  time  Missouri  had  made  but  one  settlement  with  the 
government  and  had  neglected  to  present  the  remainder  of 
her  claims.  In  all,  those  which  Bingham  presented  amounted 
to  about  a  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  dollars,  and,  with 
the  help  of  the  delegation  from  Missouri  in  Congress,  he  was 
successful  in  making  a  satisfactory  settlement.^ 

While  waiting  to  present  the  claims  clearly  before  the 
congressional  committees,  Bingham  spent  his  leisure  hours  in 
painting ;  for  a  number  of  ladies  of  his  state  had  requested  that 
he  contribute  something  for  the  centennial.  He  selected  as 
his  subjects  Miss  Vinnie  Ream,  a  sculptor,  and  Miss  Coleman, 
a  granddaughter  of  Hon.  John  J.  Crittenden.  The  portraits 
were  pronounced  excellent.  But  this  work  gave  an  enemy  a 
chance  to  criticize,  complaining  that  the  Adjutant-General 
was  wasting  his  time  and  the  state's  money  at  Washington, 
when  he  should  be  in  Jefferson  City  attending  to  the  work 
of  his  office.  The  rejoinder  which  Bingham  wrote  to  this  is 
characteristic  of  his  outspoken  manner  and  his  chivalric 
treatment  of  women.  He  said  it  was  not  for  his  own  sake  that 
he  answered  the  criticism,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  two  women, 
Miss  Ream  and  Miss  Coleman,  whom  the  writer  had  slight- 
ingly spoken  of  in  his  article.^ 

A  number  of  times  Bingham  was  called  into  various 
counties  to  settle  disturbances.  In  August,  1876,  he  was  sent 
by  Governor  Hardin  into  Ripley  County,  where  a  ku-klux 
organization  including  about  thirty  desperadoes,  was  doing 
much  damage  and  creating  great  excitement.    While  Bingham 

^The  Daily  Tribune  (Jefferson  City),  Mar.  4  and  May  2,  1876. 
'Ibid.,  Apr.  30,  May  4  and  May  10,  1876. 


LATER  WORK. 


101 


was  there,  nine  members  of  the  band  were  arrested  and  the 
names  of  the  remainder  were  ascertained.^ 

In  spite  of  the  criticisms  which  his  relentless  actions  and 
bold  language  often  incurred,  the  words  of  commendation 
expressed  in  regard  to  Bingham  through  all  his  public  career 
are  remarkable.  Such  expressions  of  appreciation  as  very 
rarely  are  made  of  a  man  during  his  lifetime  may  be  seen  time 
and  time  again  in  the  papers  of  the  day.  At  the  time  he  was 
Adjutant-General,  one  writer  after  an  extended  eulogy  says, 
"As  an  honored  and  distinguished  representative  of  the  char- 
acter of  man  needed  and  demanded  by  the  honest  element  of 
the  Democracy  for  the  next  governor  of  Missouri,  Geo.  C. 
Bingham,  sans  peur  et  sans  reproche,  stands  pre-eminently 
foremost  in  all  this  broad  state. And  this  is  only  one  of  the 
numerous  tributes,  many  of  which  are  equally  laudatory. 

In  1876  Mrs.  Bingham,  who  had  been  in  poor  health  for 
about  a  year,  spent  the  summer  in  the  East,  with  her  son, 
visiting,  among  other  points,  Philadelphia  at  the  time  of  the 
centennial,  and  Washington,  D.  C.^  She  returned  apparently 
much  improved  in  health.  But  very  soon  she  grew  worse, 
and  her  husband  hastened  to  her,  expecting  to  take  her  to 
San  Antonio,  Texas.  But  he  found  her  in  such  a  condition 
that  her  removal  to  the  asylum  at  Fulton  appeared  advisable. 
Suffering  from  temporary  aberration  of  the  mind,  she  died 
there  November  the  third.  A  letter  written  by  Bingham  to 
his  sister  soon  afterward  is  full  of  deep  sorrow.  He  speaks 
of  his  wife  with  most  tender  and  appreciative  words,  of  her 
unselfish  nature,  which  manifested  itself  all  through  her  life 

^Ihid.,  Aug.  30.  1876. 

Missouri  Adjutant-General s  Report,  1875-76. 

^The  Daily  Tribune  (Jefferson  City),  Mar.  22,  1876,  from  a  Jefferson  City 
correspondent  of  the  Saline  County  Progress. 

•Letter  from  Rollins  Bingham  to  Miss  May  Simonds,  June  18,  1902. 


102 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


and  at  the  last  had  caused  her,  in  ministering  to  others,  to 
contract  the  cold  which  brought  on  the  fatal  malady.  Her 
insanity  was  of  a  quiet  religious  nature ;  she  believed  herself  in 
Heaven.^ 

Bingham  himself  became  somewhat  interested  a  little 
later  in  the  prevailing  excitement  over  spiritualism.  He 
declared  at  one  time  that  he  had  seen  and  talked  to  his  wife 
and  she  had  kissed  him.  "Ah,  she  kissed  you,  did  she?" 
said  a  friend,  "then  she  was  your  wife,  indeed ;  no  other  woman 
would  kiss  such  a  looking  person  as  you."^  Bingham  was 
reared  a  Methodist,  as  we  have  seen,  but  during  his  second 
wife's  life,  to  be  with  her,  he  united  with  the  Baptist  Church. 
However,  he  did  not  readily  give  up  his  Methodist  habits — 
he  several  times  communed  with  other  denominations.^ 

In  February,  1877,  he  was  in  one  of  his  characteristic 
debates  in  newspaper  articles.  General  Schofield  had  written  a 
defense  of  Order  No.  11,  and  Bingham  replied  through  the 
St.  Louis  Republican.  He  was  a  fighter  to  the  last.  At  the 
time  of  his  death  he  was  in  a  fiery  debate  with  Ex-Governor 
B.  Gratz  Brown  upon  the  same  subject,  and  he  had  a  second 
or  third  article  almost  ready  for  publication.'*  Death,  says  a 
contemporary,  was  the  only  hand  that  could  ever  have  settled 
the  dispute.^ 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Curators  of  the  University 
January  19, 1877,  a  School  of  Art  was  established,  and  Bingham 
was  elected  its  professor.    No  salary  was  provided;  but  he 

•r/ie  Daily  Tribune  (JefTerson  City),  Oct.  31,  1876,  by  a  member  of  the 
Bingham  family.  Missouri  Statesman,  Nov.  10.  1876.  Letter  from  Bingham 
to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Amanda  Barnes,  Dec.  16,  1876,  lent  the  writer  by  Mrs. 
Arthur  J.  Walter. 

»Col.  R.  B.  Price. 

'Neflf,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B..  op.  cit. 

^Missouri  Statesman,  June  20,  and  .July  11,  1879. 
»Col.  R.  B.  Price. 


LATER  WORK. 


103 


was  granted  the  privilege  of  occupying  such  studio  as  the 
Executive  Committee  might  assign  for  receiving  pupils. 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  a  salary  was  attached  to  the 
position  the  third  year;  for  a  notice  of  the  opening  of  the 
University  in  1879  states  that  Bingham  would  give  instruc- 
tion without  extra  charge  to  students.  And  after  the  death  of 
the  artist  in  that  year  Conrad  Diehl  of  St.  Louis  was  elected 
in  October  to  fill  his  place,  and  one  thousand  dollars  was  to 
be  paid  him  for  his  services  during  the  remainder  of  the  term.^ 
Bingham  was  given  rooms  in  the  Normal  Building,  to 
which  he  came  in  September.  He  taught  not  only  pupils  in 
the  University,  but  also  those  in  the  female  colleges  of  the 
town  who  wished  his  instruction The  nature  of  his  position 
did  not  necessitate  his  regular  presence  at  the  University; 
so  he  spent  a  good  deal  of  time,  even  during  the  sessions,  out 
of  town. 

In  July,  1877,  he  was  in  Boonville  at  the  residence  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Nelson  engaged  in  portrait  painting.^  So  it  was 
probably  at  this  time  that  the  portraits  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Thomas  Nelson,  owned  by  Mrs.  Wyan  Nelson  of  Kansas  City, 
were  painted.  This  conclusion  is  further  substantiated  by  the 
fact  that  the  costume  of  Mr.  Nelson  is  of  the  same  style  as 
that  of  Mr.  Black  painted  soon  afterward,  and  also  by  a 
comparison  of  Mrs.  Nelson's  portrait  with  that  of  the  same 
woman  in  the  Kansas  City  Public  Library,  which  we  have 
decided  was  painted  about  1862.  We  find  that  the  difference 
in  age  might  well  place  the  second  portrait  fifteen  years  later. 
Mrs.  Birch  tells  us  that  the  portrait  of  herself  and  the  picture  of 
the  Birch  Homestead  at  Boonville  and  also  the  Palm  Leaf  Shade, 

»Switzler,  W.  F.,  History  of  the  University  of  Missouri  (Unpublished). 
Missouri  Statesman,  June  27,  1879. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  July  20,  and  Sept.  28,  1877. 
*Ibid.,  July  6,  1877. 


104 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


for  which  she  herself  posed,  were  painted  in  about  the  same  year, 
so  probably  upon  the  same  visit  to  Boonville.  The  last  named 
picture,  Palm  Leaf  Shade,  is  described  by  all  who  have  seen 
it  as  a  very  beautiful  piece  of  work.  The  woman  sits  in  the 
bright  sunlight  out-of-doors,  shading  her  face  with  a  palm 
leaf  fan. 

Bingham  spent  part  of  the  month  of  May,  1878,  in  Texas, 
visiting  his  daughter  and  resting.  It  was  a  trip  he  had  planned 
for  months  on  account  of  the  condition  of  his  health.^ 

The  eighteenth  day  of  the  following  month  he  was  married 
to  Mrs.  Mattie  Lykins,  widow  of  Dr.  Lykinsof  Kansas  City; 
and  with  her  he  spent  the  summer  in  Colorado.  One  news- 
paper notice  of  the  wedding  is  headed  "Autumn  Leaves. 
But  in  spite  of  the  advanced  age  of  the  two,  the  union  appears 
to  have  been  a  very  happy  one.  Mrs.  Lykins  was  one  of  the 
most  intellectual  and  prominent  women  in  Kansas  City  and 
was  a  source  of  much  encouragement  and  help  to  Bingham. 
A  relative  says  of  him  that  he  could  never  be  content  long 
without  a  wife ;  he  had  come  to  depend  so  completely  upon  such 
a  one  that  his  absent-minded  habits  would  get  him  into  all 
sorts  of  trouble  without  her.^ 

After  his  marriage  Bingham  and  his  wife  had  rooms  at 
Stephens  College  in  Columbia.  It  was  here  that  an  episode 
took  place  of  which  old  friends  are  fond  of  telling.  Since  his 
siege  of  measles  in  his  nineteenth  year  he  had  always  worn  a 
wig,  which  he  was  rather  sensitive  about  and  which  he  believed 
was  an  inconspicuous  and  quite  perfect  substitute  for  real 
hair,  though,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  always  awry.  So, 
great  was  his  embarrassment  but  also  quick,  as  usual,  were 
his  wits  when  at  the  first  meal  he  and  his  bride  took  at  Stephens 


'I6rd.,  Jan.  4,  Jan.  18,  May  3,  and  May  31,  1878. 
'/6id.,  June  21,  and  July  5,  1878. 
'Neflf,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  op.  cit. 


LATER  WORK. 


105 


College,  the  waitress,  passing  behind  him,  caught  her  sleeve 
in  his  wig  and  lifted  it  from  his  head,  carrying  it  half  way 
around  the  table.  Quick  as  thought,  Bingham  relieved  the 
situation  with,  "I  was  not  able  to  keep  my  own  hair  on  my 
head ;  how  should  I  hope  to  keep  the  artificial?"^ 

A  distinct  honor  was  paid  our  artist  when,  in  1878,  the 
managers  of  the  Robert  E.  Lee  Monument  Association  of  the 
State  of  Virginia  requested  Governor  Phelps  to  appoint 
General  Bingham  as  the  commissioner  to  represent  Missouri 
in  the  selection  of  a  design  for  the  monument.  He  received 
the  appointment  and  no  doubt  accepted  it;  for  the  com- 
mittee was  to  meet  in  Richmond  on  the  twenty-seventh  of 
November,  and  we  find  that  Bingham  and  his  wife  returned  to 
Columbia  from  Richmond  December  the  sixth.^  About  a 
year  earlier  he  had  been  strongly  recommended  by  the  Curators 
of  the  University  to  the  President  of  the  Unite^d  States  as  one 
of  the  assistant  commissioners  for  the  ensuing  Paris  Exposi- 
tion.^ 

An  enumeration  of  the  works  in  the  artist's  studio  in 
March,  1879,  included  County  Election,  Order  No.  11,  A 
Puzzled  Witness,  Winter  Scene  and  a  number  of  portraits. 
The  portrait  of  Eulalie  Hockaday,  granddaughter  of  Major 
Rollins,  represented  as  Little  Red  Riding  Hood,  received 
particular  attention.  We  are  told  that  the  artist  wished  to 
paint  the  child  as  she  might  actually  appear  if  she  were  going 
for  a  trip  through  the  wood,  but  again  he  was  handicapped 
by  the  wishes  of  his  patron.  He  was  obliged  to  dress  the  little 
one  in  the  best  style  of  the  day  and  arrange  everything  in  the 
neatest,  daintiest  manner.  Perhaps  it  is  just  as  true  to  the 
nursery  tale  in  that  way;  it  is  certainly  as  true  to  life  as  the 


'Gentry,  N.  T.,  Address  on  Famous  Missourians. 
^Missouri  Statesman,  Nov.  8,  and  Dec.  6,  1878. 

'Switzler,  W.  F.,  History  of  the  University  of  Missouri  (Unpublished.) 


106 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


traditional  wolf  peering  through  the  trees  down  the  pathway. 
President  Laws  of  the  University  and  his  wife,  Captain  J.  H. 
and  Mrs.  Rollins  and  William  Broadwell  and  wife  of  Fulton 
were  the  others  represented  by  portraits.^  Two  other  of  the 
artist's  late  portraits  are  those  of  Dr.  Alexander  M.  Davison 
and  Judge  F.  M.  Black.  Both  are  good,  sincere  portraits, 
illustrative  of  the  best  that  Bingham  commonly  did  in  his 
mature  years. 

The  self-portrait  of  General  Bingham  in  the  Kansas  City 
Public  Library  (Frontispiece)  is  well  enough  done  to  be  classed 
among  his  late  works,  but  the  face  looks  like  that  of  a  man  of 
only  about  fifty  years,  while  photographs  of  Bingham  in  his 
last  years  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  he  appeared  even 
older  than  he  actually  was.  We  have  several  times  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  he  painted  very  good  portraits  only 
when  the  subject  interested  him  and  that  for  this  reason  the 
assignment  of  dates  to  some  of  his  work  is  particularly  difficult. 
So  this  portrait  may  have  been  painted  earlier  in  life;  or  it 
may  have  been  painted  late,  the  artist  making  himself  appear 
younger  than  his  years  and  actual  appearance  justified. 

The  last  work  which  Bingham  did  was  upon  a  portrait  of  his 
namesake,  George  Bingham  Rollins.  He  took  the  portrait  to 
Kansas  City  with  him  a  few  days  before  his  death,  intending 
to  finish  it  there.    It  was  left  unfinished. 

In  February,  1879,  Bingham  was  very  ill  with  pneumonia, 
from  which  he  recovered  in  about  a  month.  But  in  the  follow- 
ing July  he  experienced  a  violent  attack  of  cholera  morbus 
which  proved  fatal.  After  three  days  he  died,  on  July  the 
seventh,  in  his  home  at  the  Lykins  Institute  in  Kansas  City. 
The  funeral  was  held  at  that  place,  and  it  was  said  that 


^Missouri  Statesman,  Mar.  7,  1879. 


LATER  WORK. 


107 


never  before  had  a  funeral  cortege  in  Kansas  City  drawn 
together  so  many  distinguished  citizens.  The  funeral  sermon 
by  the  Reverend  M.  Chambliss  of  the  Calvary  Baptist  Church 
and  the  addresses  made  by  President  Laws  of  the  State 
University  and  Major  Rollins,  the  life-long  friend  of  the  de- 
ceased, as  well  as  all  the  newspaper  accounts,  were  full  of 
tribute  to  the  purity  of  the  artist-statesman's  public  and 
private  life  and  to  his  support  of  integrity  and  justice  in  the 
face  of  everything.  The  text  used  by  the  minister  was  most 
appropriate:  "Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  up- 
right; for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace. 

After  the  death  of  General  Bingham's  third  wife,  Mrs. 
Mattie  Lykins  Bingham,  the  administrator  of  the  Bingham 
estate  advertised  a  sale  (the  net  proceeds  from  which  were  to 
be  donated  to  the  Ex-Confederate  Home  at  Higginsville) 
to  take  place  on  March  25,  1893,  at  Findlay's  Art  Store  in 
Kansas  City,  including  the  following  paintings: 
One  oil  painting — Order  No.  11.    (Sold  for  S675.) 
One  oil  painting — Palm  Leaf  Shade.    (Sold  for  $90.) 
One  oil  painting — Result  of  the  Election.'^    (Sold  for  $200.) 
One  oil  painting — Puzzled  Witness. 
One  oil  painting — Jolly  Flathoatmen.^ 
One  oil  painting — Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware. 
One  oil  painting — Landscape  View. 
One  oil  painting — Landscape  View  in  Colorado. 
One  oil  painting — Flock  of  Turkeys. 
One  oil  painting — Bunch  of  Letters, 
One  oil  painting — Moonlight  View. 
One  oil  painting — Feeding  the  Cows. 
One  oil  painting — Bathing  Girl. 


'Kansas  City  Times,  July  8,  1879. 

2This  is  the  one  now  owned  by  Mr.  Peters. 

'The  one  now  owned  by  Mrs.  Mastin. 


108 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


Portrait  of — Major  Rollins. 
Portrait  of — Dr.  Lykins. 
Portrait  of — General  Bingham. 
Portrait  of — Mrs.  Bingham. 
Portrait  of — Mr.  McCoy. 
Portrait  of — Mrs.  McCoy. 
Portrait  of — General  Blair. 
Portrait  of — Rollins  Bingham. 
Portrait  of — Mrs.  General  Bingham. 
Portrait  of — John  Howard  Payne. 

Many  of  the  paintings  here  listed  we  have  located  above. 
Others,  namely,  Landscape  View,  Landscape  View  in  Colorado 
(these  may  be  identical  with  some  called  Landscape  Views 
which  we  have  located — p.  96/),  Flock  of  Turkeys,  Bunch  of 
Letters,  Feeding  the  Cows,  Bathing  Girl  (assigned  by  Mrs. 
Louise  J.  Bingham  Neff  to  the  artist's  later  life),  the  portraits 
of  Dr.  Lykins,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McCoy,  and  Mrs.  General 
Bingham  (Mattie  Lykins?)  have  not  been  located.  There 
are  also  a  number  of  portraits  listed  in  the  appendix  which  the 
writer  has  located  but  has  neither  seen  nor  been  able  to  obtain 
data  upon.  Aside  from  these,  we  may  reasonably  believe 
that  there  are  many  portraits  painted  by  Bingham  in  the 
homes  of  Missouri  and  other  states. 


CONCLUSION. 


109 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CONCLUSION — ESTIMATE  OF  BINGHAM's  WORK. 

Bingham's  work  was  very  unequal.  We  find  in  his  later 
life  some  paintings  as  poorly  executed  as  much  of  his  early 
work,  and  some  of  his  early  work  ranks  with  almost  the  best  of 
his  later.  Particularly  is  this  true  in  regard  to  the  portraiture. 
We  are  not  surprised  to  find  it  so,  since  we  are  told  again  and 
again  that  he  did  not  consider  that  branch  of  art  worthy 
except  from  a  financial  standpoint.  So  he  did  his  best  only 
when  he  was  particularly  interested  in  the  subject  of  his 
portrait.  The  fact  that  he  was  so  nearly  self-trained  and  was 
so  little  influenced  by  art  masters  and  schools  is  another  cause 
of  the  lack  of  distinct  changes  during  his  life.  With  regard  to 
his  most  successful  works,  however,  his  career  divides  itself 
into  three  fairly  distinct  periods. 

The  first  period  (about  1833-37),  extending  from  the  time 
of  his  first  known  paintings  to  the  year  in  which  he  went  to 
Philadelphia,  is  again  divided  by  his  trip  to  St.  Louis.  Atten- 
tion has  already  been  called  to  the  stifTness,  conventionality 
and  leather-like  quality  of  the  portraits  of  about  1833,  '34 
and  '35,  for  example  that  of  Hon.  Josiah  Wilson  (PI.  V),  and 
that  of  himself  (PI.  VI).  Though  Bingham  did  not  stay  long 
in  St.  Louis,  and  though  he  probably  did  not  receive  much 
instruction  there  (we  have  no  knowledge  of  any),  yet  he  must 
have  seen  more  painting  than  ever  before,  and  his  work  in 
the  following  year,  1837,  shows  a  distinct  advance.  There  is 
more  freedom  in  the  portraits  of  Mr.  Lamme  (PI.  IX)  and 
Dr.  Rollins  (PI.  VII),  particularly.  No  genre  work  can,  with 
certainty,  be  assigned  to  this  period. 


110 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


In  the  second  period  (1837-56),  however,  which  includes 
the  years  between  the  beginning  of  the  artist's  study  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  and  his  trip  abroad,  were 
painted  his  most  characteristic  genre  pictures,  the  "flatboatmen 
series"  and  the  "election  series."  In  the  portraiture  of  this 
period  better  modelling  and  freer,  less  conventional  treatment 
are  evident,  for  example,  the  portrait  of  Dr.  Potter  (PI.  XXIV). 

The  third  period  (1856-79),  comprising  the  last  twenty- 
three  years  of  Bingham's  life,  is  characterized  by  still  further 
progress  in  facility  of  technique  and  expression,  due  in  great 
part  to  his  increased  experience,  no  doubt,  rather  than  to 
what  he  learned  from  the  Diisseldorf  school.  The  new  sur- 
roundings and,  particularly,  the  opportunity  of  seeing  many 
new  works  of  art  influenced  him.  We  have  no  record,  how- 
ever, of  his  having  gone  to  Diisseldorf  as  a  student.  It  would 
seem  that  he  went  as  an  independent  artist,  wishing  only  to 
work  in  an  art  center,  where  there  was  an  added  inspiration; 
for  the  large  commissions  which  we  know  he  executed  while 
there,  to  say  nothing  of  other  work  which  he  probably  did, 
must  have  occupied  the  most  of  his  time.  Most  of  his  known 
genre  pictures  painted  after  his  return  to  the  States  were  of  a 
more  historical  nature,  made  more  with  a  view  to  commemorat- 
ing particular  occasions  and  are  connected  more  definitely 
with  particular  individuals  than  were  the  earlier  ones,  which 
described  Missouri  life  more  generally.  General  Lyon  and 
General  Blair  starting  to  Camp  Jackson  (PI.  XLII),  Order  No.  11 
(PI.  XLII  I)  and  Major  Dean  in  Jail  (PI.  XLIV),  are  connected 
with  definite  occasions,  and  the  latter  two  are  quite  plainly  of 
a  didactic  nature.  They  are  not  so  full  of  the  passion  for 
characteristic  individuality  as  are,  for  example,  the  pictures 
of  the  "election  series."  The  most  academic  things  done  by 
the  artist  belong  also  to  these  years — The  Thread  of  Life^ 


CONCLUSION. 


Ill 


and  the  portrait  of  Miss  Rollins  (PI.  XLIX).  Another  addi- 
tion to  his  range  of  subjects  was  landscape  painting  as  a  sepa- 
rate branch.  He  had  used  it  often  before  as  a  setting  for  his 
figure  compositions;  but  we  know  of  but  little  pure  landscape 
painting  previous  to  1856.  His  best  work  in  portraiture  in 
this  period  is  beyond  any  belonging  to  earlier  years.  The 
simple,  sympathetic  interpretation  of  his  son  (PL  XLV), 
the  animated  portraits  of  Dr.  Troost  and  Mrs.  Todd  (PI. 
XXXVIII),  and,  particularly,  the  portrait  of  Major  Rollins 
(PI.  XLVII),  represent  the  artist  at  his  best. 

Of  the  views  of  art  which  actuated  Bingham  through  his 
life  in  its  service  we  find  a  clear  statement  in  his  lecture  on 
"Art,  the  Ideal  of  Art,  and  the  Utility  of  Art,"  prepared  for 
delivery  in  the  State  University  March  1,  1879,  only  a  few 
months  before  his  death.  We  give  here  some  extracts  from 
that  lecture: 

"Michelangelo,  whose  sublime  and  unrivaled  productions, 
both  in  painting  and  sculpture,  certainly  entitle  him  to  be 
regarded  as  good  authority  in  all  that  relates  to  Art,  clearly 
and  unhesitatingly  designates  it  as  'the  imitation  of  nature.' 

"The  Oxford  student,  however,  who  ranks  as  the  ablest 
and  most  popular  writer  on  the  subject,  undertakes  to  convince 
his  readers  that  the  imitation  of  nature,  so  far  from  being  Art, 
is  not  even  the  language  of  Art.  He  boldly  goes  still  further 
and  asserts  that  the  more  perfect  the  imitation  the  less  it 
partakes  of  the  character  of  genuine  Art.  He  takes  the  posi- 
tion that  Art  to  be  genuine  must  be  true,  and  that  an  imitation 
so  perfect  as  to  produce  an  illusion,  and  thereby  make  us 
believe  that  a  thing  is  what  it  really  is  not,  gives  expression  to 
a  falsehood  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  justly  regarded  as  genuine 
Art,  an  essential  quality  of  which  is  truth  


112 


GEORCxE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


"More  than  once  in  my  own  experience  portraits  painted 
by  myself  and  placed  in  windows  facing  the  sun  to  expedite 
their  drying  have  been  mistaken  for  the  originals  by  persons 
outside  and  spoken  to  as  such.  Such  occurrences  doubtless 
mark  the  experience  of  nearly  every  portrait  painter ;  but  none 
of  them  ever  dreamed  that  the  temporary  deception  thus 

produced  lessened  the  artistic  merit  of  such  works  An 

artist  who  expects  to  rise  to  anything  like  eminence  in  his 
profession  must  study  nature  in  all  her  varied  phases  and 
accept  her  both  as  his  model  and  teacher.  He  may  consider 
every  theory  which  may  be  advanced  upon  the  subject  nearest 
his  heart,  but  he  must  trust  his  own  eyes  and  never  surrender 
the  deliberate  and  matured  conclusions  of  his  own  judgment 
to  any  authority  however  high. 

"What  I  mean  by  the  imitation  of  nature  is  the  portraiture 
of  her  charms  as  she  appears  to  the  eye  of  the  artist.  A 
pictorial  statement  which  gives  us  distant  trees,  the  leaves  of 
which  are  all  separately  and  distinctly  marked,  is  no  imitation 
of  nature.  She  never  thus  presents  herself  to  our  organs 
of  vision.  Space  and  atmosphere,  light  and  shadow,  stamp 
their  impress  on  all  that  we  see  in  the  extended  fields  which  she 
opens  to  our  view,  and  an  omission  to  present  upon  our 
canvas  a  graphic  resemblance  of  the  appearances  thus  produced 
makes  it  fall  short  of  that  truth  which  should  characterize 
every  work  of  Art.  But  while  I  insist  that  the  imitation  of 
nature  is  an  essential  quality  of  Art,  I  by  no  means  wish  to 
be  understood  as  meaning  that  any  and  every  imitation  of 
nature  is  a  work  of  Art. 

"Art  is  the  outward  expression  of  the  esthetic  sentiment 
produced  in  the  mind  by  the  contemplation  of  the  grand  and 
beautiful  in  nature,  and  it  is  the  imitation  in  Art  of  that  which 
creates  this  sentiment  that  constitutes  its  expression.  The 


CONCLUSION . 


113 


imitation  is  the  word  which  utters  the  sentiment.  No  artist 
need  apprehend  that  any  imitation  of  nature  within  the 
possibilities  of  his  power  will  long  be  taken  for  what  it  is  not. 
There  are  attributes  of  nature  which  the  highest  Art  can  never 
possess  

'The  Ideal  in  Art 

.AH  the  thought  which  in  the  course  of  my  studies 
I  have  been  able  to  give  to  the  subject  has  led  me  to  conclude 
that  the  ideal  in  Art  is  but  the  impressions  made  upon  the 
mind  of  the  artist  by  the  beautiful  or  Art  subjects  in  external 
nature,  and  that  our  Art  power  is  the  ability  to  receive  and 
retain  these  impressions  so  clearly  and  distinctly  as  to  be  able 
to  duplicate  them  upon  canvas.  So  far  from  these  impressions 
thus  engraved  upon  our  memory  being  superior  to  nature, 
they  are  but  the  creatures  of  nature  and  depend  upon  her  for 
existence  as  fully  as  the  image  in  a  mirror  depends  upon  that 
which  is  before  it.  It  is  true  that  a  work  of  Art  emanating 
from  these  impressions  may  be,  and  generally  is,  tinged  by 
some  peculiarity  belonging  to  the  mind  of  the  artist,  just  as 
some  mirrors  by  a  slight  convex  in  their  surface  give  reflec- 
tions which  do  not  exactly  accord  with  the  objects  before 
them.  Yet  any  obvious  and  radical  departure  from  its  proto- 
types in  nature  will  justly  condemn  it  as  a  work  of  Art. 

"I  have  frequently  been  told,  in  conversation  with  persons 
who  have  obtained  their  ideas  of  Art  from  books,  that  an 
artist  should  give  to  his  productions  something  more  than 
nature  presents  to  the  eye.  That  in  painting  a  portrait,  for 
instance,  he  should  not  be  satisfied  with  giving  a  true  delinea- 
tion of  the  form  and  features  of  his  subject,  with  all  the  lines  of 
his  face  which  mark  his  individuality,  but  in  addition  to  these 
should  impart  to  his  work  the  soul  of  his  sitter.    I  cannot  but 

8 


114 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


think  that  this  is  exacting  from  an  artist  that  which  rather 
transcends  the  limits  of  his  powers,  great  as  they  may  be. 
As  for  myself,  I  must  confess  that  if  my  life  and  even  my 
eternal  salvation  depended  upon  such  an  achievement,  I 
would  look  forward  to  nothing  better  than  death  and  eternal 
misery  in  that  place  prepared  for  the  unsaved.  According 
to  all  our  existing  ideas  of  a  soul,  there  is  nothing  material 
in  its  composition.  The  manufacture,  therefore,  of  such  a 
thing  out  of  the  earthen  pigments  which  lie  upon  my  palette 
would  be  a  miracle  entitling  me  to  rank  as  the  equal  of  the 
Almighty  himself.  Even  if  I  could  perform  such  a  miracle, 
I  would  be  robbing  my  sitter  of  the  most  valuable  part  of  his 
nature  and  giving  it  to  the  work  of  my  own  hands.  There  are 
lines  which  are  to  be  seen  on  every  man's  face  which  indicate 
to  a  certain  extent  the  nature  of  the  spirit  within  him.  But 
these  lines  are  not  the  spirit  which  they  indicate  any  more 
than  the  sign  above  the  entrance  to  a  store  is  the  merchandise 
within.  These  lines  upon  the  face  embody  what  artists 
term  its  expression,  because  they  reveal  the  thoughts  and 
emotions,  and,  to  some  extent,  the  mental  and  moral  character 
of  the  man.  The  clear  perception  and  practiced  eye  of  the 
artist  will  not  fail  to  detect  these,  and  by  tracing  similar  lines 
upon  the  portrait,  he  gives  to  it  the  expression  which  belongs 
to  the  face  of  the  sitter.  In  doing  this,  so  far  from  trans- 
ferring to  his  canvas  the  soul  of  his  sitter,  he  merely  gives  such 
indications  of  a  soul  as  appear  in  certain  lines  of  the  human 
face;  if  he  gives  them  correctly,  he  has  done  all  that  Art 
can  do  

In  this  lecture  Bingham  is  perfectly  frank  in  his  state- 
ments of  the  limitations  as  well  as  of  the  possibilities  of  his 
art.    Many  will  disagree  with  him  on  some  points,  for  example, 


^Missouri  University  Lectures,  1879,  p.  311 


CONCLUSION. 


115 


in  his  ideas  of  portraiture.  While  it  is  true  that  an  artist 
cannot  make  his  portrait  speak,  such  men  as  Whistler  have, 
with  their  keen  interpretative  power  and  their  spontaneity 
of  representation,  truly  shown  us  what  is  beneath  the  mask  of 
their  sitters;  we  see  the  thoughts  and  feelings  and  character — 
the  soul  itself. 

But  Bingham's  greatest  interest  and  his  most  serious 
work  was,  as  we  have  seen,  in  genre  painting.  In  attempting 
to  estimate  the  value  of  any  artist  we  must  compare  him 
with  contemporaries  working  in  his  particular  line.  If  we 
consider  Bingham  in  connection  with  artists  of  today,  with 
their  superior  training  and  their  revolution  of  ideals  and  ideas, 
we,  who  share  these  same  conceptions,  will  be  unjust  in  our 
estimate  of  him.  Neither  is  it  reasonable  to  compare  him 
with  the  great  masters  of  the  past. 

We  have  found  this  artist  living  in  a  frontier  country, 
where  the  struggle  for  existence  was  the  subject  uppermost  in 
men's  minds.  For  many  years,  during  the  Colonial  and 
Revolutionary  periods,  there  had  been  but  little  demand  and 
less  time  and  money  for  art.  Portraiture  was  the  only  branch 
that  people  felt  a  need  for,  and  that  was  almost  entirely  under 
the  influence  of  the  English  school ;  America  still  called  England 
home,  and  artists  still  went  there  for  their  education.  But 
after  the  War  of  1812  independence  began  to  assert  itself 
in  every  avenue  of  life.  The  interest  in  the  working  out  of 
the  new  governmental  problems,  the  growth  of  democracy  and, 
above  all,  the  pushing  out  of  colonies  into  the  West  brought  a 
gradual  cessation  of  close  communication  with  England  and 
the  dependence  upon  her  for  leadership.  The  pioneers  in 
their  isolated  homes  soon  forgot  their  pride  of  birth  and  their 
polished  manners;  only  the  future  with  its  alluring  prospects 
was  of  interest  to  them. 


116 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


A  noteworthy  artist  characteristic  of  this  period  was 
Chester  Harding,  the  itinerant  portrait  painter  whom  we  have 
mentioned  as  Bingham's  early  inspiration  to  art.  Though  he 
spent  some  years  in  Europe,  his  art  was,  in  great  part,  the 
product  of  American  training — or  perhaps  it  were  better  to 
say  non-training — true  and  straightforward,  with  none  of 
the  poHsh  and  pompous  courtHness  characteristic  of  such  an 
artist  as  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  This  breaking  away  from 
foreign  dependence  was,  after  all,  for  the  salvation  of  American 
art.  It  was  only  by  this  means  that  our  artists  could  assert 
their  individuality  and  could  portray  the  thoughts  and  actions 
of  our  nation. 

It  was  this  desire  to  represent  the  life  of  America  that 
led  our  artists  to  enter  the  field  of  genre  painting.  The  early 
American  genre  partook  of  the  English  rather  than  of  the 
Dutch  ideal;  its  chief  interest  lay  in  the  subject-matter,  not 
in  the  creation  of  an  artistic  production.  From  the  great 
English  master,  Hogarth,  on  down  to  Brown,  who  though 
English  by  birth  was  American  by  virtue  of  his  long  residence 
and  work  here,  we  find  the  greater  interest  in  the  subject. 
Hogarth's  works  preach  sermons  on  morality.  Brown's 
tell  little  anecdotes  of  familiar  life  in  an  affected,  sentimental 
manner.  Brown,  Inman,  Woodville,  Eastman  Johnson  and 
Wm.  S.  Mount  are  the  genre  painters  given  place  in  our 
histories  of  American  art.  The  last  three  were,  like  Bingham, 
students  at  Diisseldorf,  and  their  work  shows  more  of  the 
influence  of  that  school,  in  general,  than  does  his,  more  of 
sentimentality  and  less  of  sincerity.  Woodville's  Reading 
the  News  is  of  the  same  character  as  some  of  Bingham's  work, 
except  that  there  is  too  much  of  theatrical  exaggeration  in  it; 
it  is  not  convincing.  Johnson's  and  Mount's  paintings  of 
southern  life  are  interesting  in  the  stories  they  tell;  but  the 


CONCLUSION. 


117 


types  of  figures  do  not  appeal  to  us  as  being  wholly  character- 
istic and  true.  So  also  the  boys  that  Brown  and  Inman  are 
fond  of  representing  are  not  so  real  as  those  by  our  artist. 
Compare,  for  example,  Inman's  Mumble-the-Peg  with  Bing- 
ham's representation  of  the  same  in  his  County  Election 
(Pis.  XXVIII  and  XXIX,  1),  or  Brown's  Sympathy  with 
Bingham's  sketch  of  a  boy  (PI.  XV,  1).  We  are  not  sure  that 
Inman's  boys  are  actually  enjoying  their  game,  and  we  feel 
quite  certain  that  Brown's  carefully  posed  model  is  no  boot- 
black in  reality.  In  Bingham's  representations,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  are  convinced  of  the  real  boy-nature,  wholly  natural 
and  unconscious  of  itself ;  there  is  no  suggestion  of  posing  for 
the  occasion. 

Though  Bingham  was  often  weak  in  drawing  and  usually 
poor  in  color,  he  was  true  to  the  life  which  he  represented  in  as 
far  as  his  technique  allowed.  There  is  a  ring  of  sincerity 
through  his  work;  so  that  when  we  study  his  pictures,  with 
their  great  variety  of  typical  figures,  we  feel  that  we  are 
becoming  acquainted  with  actual  characters.  That  wily 
politician,  that  shrewd  old  villager,  that  carefree  loafer — all, 
we  are  sure,  must  have  been  living  personalities,  and  if  we  had 
lived  among  them,  we  should  have  found  them  as  they  are 
described  for  us.  Because  of  this  sincere,  truthful  interpreta- 
tion and  portrayal  of  the  life  of  his  time  in  Missouri,  Bingham's 
work  stands  at  the  head  of  American  genre  painting  in  the 
second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  it  is  upon  these 
worth-while  characteristics  that  his  claim  to  future  recog- 
nition is  based. 


APPENDIX. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  BINGHAM'S  PAINTINGS 


1830  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  Henry  Miller.^ 

1830  (about)  Portrait  of  Dr.  John  Sappington/ 

Mrs.  A.  Morrison,  K.  C. 
1830  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  John  Sappington,^ 

Mrs.  A.  Morrison,  K.  C. 
1830-33  Portrait  of  Judge  David  Todd,^ 

Destroyed. 

1830-33  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Wm.  Johnston,^ 

Dr.  J.  T.  M.  Johnston,  K.  C. 
1834  Portrait  of  Col.  Caleb  S.  Stone,^ 

Mrs.  E.  H.  Fudge,  Chicago. 
1834  Portrait  of  Judge  Warren  Woodson, ^ 

Dr.  Woodson  Moss,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1834  Portrait  of  Hon.  Josiah  Wilson^, 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Stone,  Columbia,  Mo. 

1834  Portrait  of  Maj.  James  S.  Rollins,^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 

1835  Portrait  of  Bingham,  by  himself,^ 

G.  B.  Rollins  Estate,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1835  Portrait  of  Col.  Thubael  Allen,^ 

Miss  Helen  M.  Long,  K.  C. 
1835  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Thubael  Allen,^ 

Miss  Helen  M.  Long,  K.  C. 
1837  (before)  Portrait  of  Gen.  W.  H.  Crowther,^ 

Mrs.  Sue  Ewing,  Stockton,  Kans. 
1837  (before)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  W.  H.  Crowther,^ 

Mrs.  Sue  Ewing,  Stockton,  Kans. 
1837  Portrait  of  Dr.  Anthony  W.  Rollins,^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1837  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Anthony  W.  Rollins,^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 

(118) 


APPENDIX. 


119 


1837  Portrait  of  Mr.  Josiah  Lamme,^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1837  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Josiah  Lamme  and  Son,i 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1837  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  Thomas  Miller,^ 

Miss  Ruth  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1837  Portrait  of  Judge  Henry  Lewis, ^ 

Mrs.  Emma  L.  Lewis,  Fayette,  Mo. 
1837  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Lewis,^ 

Mrs.  Emma  L.  Lewis,  Fayette,  Mo. 

1837  Portrait  of  Maj.  James  S.  Rollins,^ 

Mrs.  Mary  R.  Overall,  St.  Louis. 
1837  Portrait  of  Mrs.  James  S.  Rollins,^ 

Mrs.  Mary  R.  Overall,  St.  Louis. 
1837  Portrait  of  Hon.  Roger  North  Todd,i 

Mr.  N.  T.  Gentry,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1837  Portrait  of  Gen.  Richard  Gentry,^ 

Mr.  W.  R.  Gentry,  St.  Louis. 
1838-39  Portrait  of  Capt.  John  F.  Nicolds,^ 

Mrs.  A.  A.  Brown,  Gazelle,  Cal. 
1838-39  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  M.  Nicolds,^ 

Mrs.  A.  A.  Brown,  Gazelle,  Cal. 

1838-  39  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Thos.  Shackelford,'^ 

Mr.  G.  C.  Shackelford,  K.  C. 
1839  (about)  Portrait  of  Miss  Martha  J.  Shackelford,* 

Mrs.  C.  C.  Hemenway,  Glasgow,  Mo. 
1839  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  John  Harrison,* 

Mrs.  C.  C.  Hemenway,  Glasgow,  Mo. 

1839-  40  Portrait  of  Mr.  John  H.  Turner,* 

Mr.  John  H.  Turner,  Glasgow,  Mo. 
1839-40  Portrait  of  Mr.  Elijah  R.  PuUiam,* 

Mrs.  R.  B.  Snow,  Ferguson,  Mo. 
1839-40  Portrait  of  Dr.  Tamnel  T.  Crews,* 

Mrs.  Margaret  W.  Ferguson,  Fayette,  Mo. 
1839-40  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Ward  Crews,* 

Mrs.  Margaret  W.  Ferguson,  Fayette,  Mo. 
1839-40  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Wm.  Ward,* 

Mrs.  Margaret  W.  Ferguson,  Fayette,  Mo. 


120  GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 

1840  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  E.  H.  Bingham  {The  Dull 

Story),^ 

Mrs.  Wyan  Nelson,  K.  C. 
1840  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  E.  H.  Bingham  and  Son,^ 

Mr.  Thos.  B.  King,  Amarillo,  Tex. 
1840  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Thos.  Nelson,^ 

Mr.  Bingham  Birch,  Muskoteen,  la. 
1840  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  Thos.  H.  Nelson,^ 

Mr.  Bingham  Birch,  Muskoteen,  la. 

1840-44  Portrait  of  Andrew  Jackson.^ 

1840-44  Portrait  of  James  Buchanan.^ 

1840-44  Portrait  of  Walker.^ 

1840-44  Portrait  of  Calhoun.« 

1840-44  Portrait  of  Breckenridge.^ 

1840-44  Portrait  of  Webster.^ 

1840-44  Portrait  of  Clay.« 

1840-44  Portrait  of  Van  Buren.^ 

1840-44  Portrait  of  John  Howard  Payne.' 

Mrs.  J.  V.  C.  Karnes,  K.  C. 
1840-44  Portrait  of  John  Quincy  Adams  (study), ^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1840-44  Portrait  of  John  Quincy  Adams, ^ 

G.  B.  Rollins  Estate,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1840-44  Portrait  of  Mrs.  E.  H.  Bingham,^ 

Mrs.  Thos.  B.  King,  Amarillo,  Tex. 
1842  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  Wm.  B.  Sappington,^ 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Sappington,  Boonville,  Mo. 

1842  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Wm.  B.  Sappington,^ 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Sappington,  Boonville,  Mo. 

1843  (about)  Portrait  of  Horace  Bingham  at  six  years, ^ 

Mrs.  Thos.  B.  King,  Amarillo,  Tex. 
1845  (by)  Fur  Traders  Descending  the  Missouri,^ 

Mr.  R.  S.  Bunker,  Mobile,  Ala.,  in  1845. 
1845  (by)  The  Concealed  Enemy,^ 

Mr.  James  A.  Hutchison,  Pittsburg,  Pa., 
in  1845. 

1845  (by)  Cottage  Scenery,^ 

Mr.  J.  D.  Carhart,  Macon,  Ga.,  in  1845. 


APPENDIX. 


121 


1845  (by) .  Landscape,^ 

Mr.  James  Thompson,  N.  Y.,  in  1845. 

1845-46  (by)  Jolly  Flathoatmen,^ 

Mr.  B.  Van  Schaick,  N.  Y.,  in  1847. 

1846  (by)  Boatmen  on  the  Missouri,^ 

Mr.  J.  R.  Macmurdo,  New  Orleans,  La., 
in  1846. 

1846  (by)  Landscape  with  Cattle,^ 

Mr.  C.  Wilkes,  Washington,  D.  C,  in 
1846. 

1846  (about)  Jolly  Flatboatmen,^ 

Mrs.  Thos.  H.  Mastin,  K.  C. 

1847  (by)  Lumbermen  Dining.^ 

1847  (by)  Lighter   Relieving   a  Steamboat  Aground^,  or 

Watching  the  Cargo, 

Mr.  Yeatman,  St.  Louis,  in  1847. 

Mr.  S.  E.  Paine,  N.  Y.,  in  1849. 
1847  (by)  Raftsmen  Playing  Cards  or  In  a  Quandary,"^ 

Mr.  E.  Crosswell,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  1847. 

1847  (about)  Raftsmen  Playing  Cards,^ 

Athenaeum  Museum,  Pittsfield,  Mass. 

1848   Captured  by  Indians,* 

McCaughen  &  Burr,  St.  Louis. 

1848  Portrait  of  Dr.  Oscar  F.  Potter,^ 

City  Art  Museum,  St.  Louis. 

1848  (by)  Stump  Orator,^ 

Mr.  W.  Duncan,  Savannah,  Ga.,  in  1848. 

1849  (by)  Sketchbook,! 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 

1849  (by)   Woody ard,^ 

1849  (by)  St.  Louis  Wharf, ^ 

Mr.  S.  Pell,  N.  Y.,  in  1849. 
1849  (by)  County  Politician,^ 

Mr.  John  Boyd,  Winsted,  Ct.,  in  1849. 
1849  (by)  Raftsmen  on  the  Ohio,^ 

Mr.  Jas.  Key,  Florence,  Ala.,  in  1849. 
1849  (by)  A  Boatman,^ 

"J,"  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  1849. 

1849  Portrait  of  Dr.  Wm.  Jewell  (full-length ),3 

Wm.  Jewell  College,  Liberty,  Mo. 


122 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


1849  (probably) ....  Portrait  of  Dr.  Wm.  Jewell  (smaller).* 
1850  Portrait  of  Dr.  Lathrop,* 

Destroyed  in  1892. 

1850  Portrait  of  Capt.  Wm.  Johnston/ 

Dr.  J.  T.  M.  Johnston,  K.  C. 

1850  (by)  Shooting  J  or  the  Beef,^ 

1851  (by)  Cattle  Piece.^ 

1851  (by)  Fishing  on  the  Mississippi.^ 

1851  (by)  The  Squatters.^ 

1851  (by)  The  Wood-Boat.^ 

1851  (by)  Trapper's  Return.^ 

1851  (by)  Canvassing  for  a  Vote.^ 

1851  (by)  Chess  Players.^ 

1851  (by)  Scene  on  the  OhioJ 

1851  Emigration  of  Daniel  Boone,^ 

City  Art  Museum,  St.  Louis. 

1851-52  County  Election,^ 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 

1852  Belated  Wayfarers,* 

MeCaughen  &  Burr,  St.  Louis. 

1852  Portraits  of  St.  Louis  Residents. * 

1852  Portrait  of  Dr.  J.  B.  Thomas,! 

Mrs.  E.  Hutchison,  Independence,  Mo. 

1853  (about)  Portrait  of  Miss  Sallie  More,* 

Mrs.  H.  Smith,  Prarie  Home,  Mo. 
1853-54  Stump  Speaking,^ 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 
1854  Result  of  the  Election  or  Verdict  of  the  People,^ 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 

1854  (after)  Verdict  of  the  People  (replica), ^ 

Mr.  J.  W.  S.  Peters,  K.  C. 
1856  (about)  Portrait  of  Locke  Hardeman,* 

Mr.  G.  H.  Hardeman,  Gray  Summit,  Mo. 
1856  (probably) ....  Copy  of  Gilbert  Stuart's  Athenaeum  Wash- 
ington,^ 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 
1856  (probably) ....  Copy  of  Gilbert  Stuart's  Martha  Washington,* 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 


APPENDIX. 


123 


1856-58  Portrait  of  Washington  (full-length), ^ 

Destroyed  in  1912. 
1856-58  Portrait  of  Jefferson  (full-length), ^ 

Destroyed  in  1912. 
1856-58  Diisseldorf  Landscapes,^" 

Mrs.  J.  M.  Piper,  K.  C,  had  two  in  1902. 
1856-74  Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware,^ 

Mrs.  Thos.  H.  Mastin,  K.  C. 
1857  (by)  The  First  Music  Lesson,^ 

Mr.  E.  P.  Mitchell,  Philadelphia,  in  1857. 
1857  Jolly  Flatboatmen  No.  2,^ 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 
1859  Portrait  of  Mr.  Elijah  S.  Stephens,^ 

Mr.  E.  W.  Stephens,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1859  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Elijah  S.  Stephens,^ 

Mr.  E.  W.  Stephens,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1859  (about)  Portrait  of  Hon.  Jas.  S.  Gordon,^ 

Mr.  Marshall  Gordon,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1859  Portrait  of  Henry  Clay,^ 

Destroyed  in  1912. 

1859  Portrait  of  Andrew  Jackson,' 

Destroyed  in  1912. 
1859  (about)  Portrait  of  Miss  Annie  Allen  (child),^ 

Miss  Helen  M.  Long,  K.  C. 
1859  (about)  Portrait  of  Dr.  Benoist  Troost,^ 

Public  Library,  K.  C. 

1859  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Mary  Troost,i 

Public  Library,  K.  C. 

1859-60  Portrait  of  Baron  Von  Humboldt,^ 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 

1860  Portrait  of  Mrs.  R.  L.  Todd  and  Daughter,^ 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Whitten,  Columbia,  Mo. 

1860  (about)  Portrait  of  Hon.  Samuel  L.  Sawyer,^ 

Mrs.  S.  W.  Sawyer,  Independence,  Mo. 
1860  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  Odon  Guitar,^ 

Mrs.  Odon  Guitar,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1860  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  James  L.  Minor,^ 

Mrs.  S.  Minor  Gamble,  K.  C. 


124  GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 

1860  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Eliza  Thomas  Bingham,^ 

Mrs.  E.  Hutchison,  Independence,  Mo. 
1862  Portrait  of  Mr.  James  M.  Piper,i 

Mr.  W.  E.  Thomas,  K.  C. 
1862  Portrait  of  Mrs.  James  M.  Piper,i 

Mr.  W.  E.  Thomas,  K.  C. 
1862  Portrait  of  Dr.  Edwin  Price,i 

Col.  R.  B.  Price,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1862  Portrait  of  Col.  R.  B.  Price, ^ 

Col.  R.  B.  Price,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1862  Portrait  of  Mrs.  R.  B.  Price, i 

Col.  R.  B.  Price,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1862  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Thos.  W.  Nelson,^ 

Public  Library,  K.  C. 
1862  (about)  The  Thread  of  Life,^ 

Mrs.  E.  Hutchison,  Independence,  Mo. 

1862  (about)  Gen.  Lyon  and  Gen.  Blair  Starting  for  Camp 

Jackson,^ 

G.  B.  Rollins  Estate,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1865-66  Portrait  of  Brigadier-General  Lyon,^ 

Destroyed  in  1912. 
1865-68  Order  No.  11,^ 

G.  B.  Rollins  Estate,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1866  Major  Dean  in  Jail,^ 

Mr.  W.  E.  Thomas,  K.  C. 

1867  (about)  Portrait  of  Rollins  Bingham  at  six  years, ^ 

Mrs.  E.  Hutchison,  Independence,  Mo. 

1868  (about)  Order  No.  11,^ 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Mercer,  Independence,  Mo. 

1868  (about)  Order  No.  11    (replica  or  study — 24  in.  x 

18  in.), 8 
Mr.  R.  W.  Thomas,  K.  C. 

1869  Portrait  of  John  J.  Mastin  (child),i 

Mrs.  Thos.  H.  Mastin,  K.  C. 

1869  Portrait  of  Mr.  Thos.  H.  Mastin,^ 

Mrs.  Thos.  H.  Mastin,  K.  C. 

1869  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  Birch,^ 

Mrs.  W.  H.  Lyons,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 


APPENDIX. 


125 


1869  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Birch/ 

Mrs.  W.  H.  Lyons,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

1869  (about)  Portrait  of  Frank  P.  Blair  (study), ^ 

Mrs.  F.  P.  Blair,  Chicago. 

1869-71  Portrait  of  Frank  P.  Blair  (full-length), i 

Mercantile  Library,  St.  Louis. 

1870  (about)  Portrait  of  Mr.  Kinney,^ 

Miss  Alice  Kinney,  New  Franklin,  Mo. 

1870  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Kinney,^ 

Miss  Alice  Kinney,  New  Franklin,  Mo. 

1870  (about)  Portrait  of  Son  and  Daughter  of  Mr.  Kinney.^ 

Miss  Alice  Kinney,  New  Franklin,  Mo. 

1871  (about)  Portrait  of  Maj.  James  S.  Rollins  (bust  study)^ 

G.  B.  Rollins  Estate,  Columbia,  Mo. 

1871  (about)  Portrait  of  Maj.  James  S.  Rollins  (full-length 

study), ^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1871-73  Portrait  of  Maj.  James  S.  Rollins  (full-length )2 

Destroyed  in  1892. 
1872  Portrait  of  Mrs.  James  S.  Rollins,^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1872  Portrait  of  Miss  Sallie  Rodes  Rollins,^ 

Mr.  C.  B.  Rollins,  Columbia,  Mo. 
1872  Pike's  Peak  (study), » 

Mr.  R.  S.  Thomas,  Blue  Springs,  Mo. 
1872  Pike's  Peak,^ 

Findlay  Art  Company,  K.  C. 

1872  (probably) ....  Four  Colorado  Landscapes,^" 

Mrs.  J.  M.  Piper,  in  1902. 
1872  (probably) ....  Moonlight  View^^  (hilly  scene  on  the  south 

part  of  the  Gasconade  River), 

Mr.  R.  W.  Thomas,  K.  C. 
1874  The  Puzzled  Witness,^ 

Judge  James  M.  Gibson,  K.  C. 
1876  Portrait  of  Dr.  Alexander  M.  Davison,^ 

Mr.  Edward  J.  Davison,  K.  C. 

1876  Portrait  of  Miss  Coleman.^ 

1876  Portrait  of  Miss  Vinnie  Reara.^ 


126 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


1877  (about)  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Birch,^ 

Mr.  J.  W.  Birch,  Bunceton,  Mo. 
1877  (about)  Birch  Homestead  at  Boonville,^ 

Mr.  J.  W.  Birch,  Bunceton,  Mo. 
1877  (about)  Palm  Leaf  Shade,^ 

Mrs.  L.  M.  Miller,  K.  C. 
1877  (about)  Portrait  of  Bingham  by  himself,^ 

Public  Library,  K.  C. 
1877  (probably) ....  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Thos.  W.  Nelson,^ 

Mrs.  Wyan  Nelson,  K.  C. 

1877  (probably) ....  Portrait  of  Mr.  Thos.  W.  Nelson,^ 

Mrs.  Wyan  Nelson,  K.  C. 

1878  (about)  Portrait  of  Judge  F.  M.  Black,i 

Historical  Society,  K.  C. 


1878-79  (probably).  .Portrait  of  Eulalia  Hockaday    (Red  Riding 

Hood),2 

Mrs.  F.  W.  Sneed,  Pittsburgh. 
1878-79  (probably).  .Portrait  of  Dr.  Laws.^ 
1878-79  (probably).  .Portrait  of  Mrs.  Laws.^ 
1878-79  (probably) ..  Portrait  of  Capt.  J.  H.  Rollins.^ 
1878-79  (probably).  .Portrait  of  Mrs.  J.  H.  Rollins.^ 
1878-79  (probably) .  .Portrait  of  Mr.  Wm.  Broadwell.^ 
1878-79  (probably).  .Portrait  of  Mrs.  Wm.  Broadwell.* 

?   Portrait  of  Dr.  Hudson.^ 

?   Portrait  of  Dr.  Shannon.^ 

?  Portrait  of  Dr.  Daniel  Read.^* 

?   Old  Field  Horsed 

?   Horse  Thief. ^ 

?   Girl  at  Prayer.^^ 

?   Winter  Scene.^^ 

?   Painted  Lithograph  of  Sterling  Price,^^ 

Historical  Society,  K.  C. 

?   Bathing  GirU' 

?   Feeding  the  Cows.^^ 

?   Landscape  View.^^ 

?   Landscape  View  in  Colorado.^^ 

?   Flock  of  Turkeys.^^ 

?   Bunch  of  Letters.^^ 

?   Portrait  of  Dr.  Lykins." 


APPENDIX. 


127 


Portrait  of  Mr.  McCoy.i^ 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  McCoy.^'^ 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Gen,  Bingham. 
Moonlight  Scene  (14x20  in.).^^ 

Mr.  R.  S.  Thomas,  Blue  Springs,  Mo. 
Two  Landscapes,^' 

Miss  Elvina  Mills,  Boonville,  Mo. 
Two  portraits, 13 

Miss  Elvina  Mills,  Boonville,  Mo. 
Portrait  of  Henry  Bingham,  brother  of  the 
artist,^'' 

Mrs.  L.  J.  B.  Ne£f,  Marshall,  Mo. 
Portrait  of  Maj.  Dubois.^o 
Portrait  of  Hon.  J.  B.  Wurnall,^ 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Wurnall,  K.  C. 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  J.  B.  Wurnall,^ 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Wurnall,  K.  C. 
Portrait  of  Rev.  R.  S.  Thomas,^' 

Mr.  R.  S.  Thomas,  Blue  Springs,  Mo. 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  R.  S.  Thomas,^' 

Mr.  R.  S.  Thomas,  Blue  Springs,  Mo. 
Portrait  of  Mr.  Joshua  Belden,* 

Belden  Groves,  St.  Louis. 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Joshua  Belden, ^ 

Belden  Groves,  St.  Louis. 
Portrait  of  Captain  Sinclair  Kirtley.^ 
Portrait  of  Mr.  Wm.  F.  Dunnica,^ 

Mr.  Thomas  Shepperd,  Pittsburgh. 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Wm.  F.  Dunnica,^ 

Mr.  Thomas  Shepperd,  Pittsburgh. 
Portrait  of  Dr.  Thos.  N.  Cockerill,^ 

Mrs.  Florence  Follin,  Glasgow,  Mo. 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Thos.  N.  Cockerill,^ 

Mrs.  Florence  Follin,  Glasgow,  Mo. 
Portrait  of  Mr.  Jacob  Wyan.* 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Jacob  Wyan,^ 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Sappington,  Boonville,  Mo. 
Portrait  of  Agnes  Nelson  Day,^ 

Mrs.  B.  F.  Addington,  St.  Louis. 


128 


GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 


?   Portrait  of  Mrs.  Robert  Aull,^ 

Mrs.  S.  M.  Hayden,  Glasgow,  Mo. 

?  Portrait  of  two  children  painted  on  glass, ^ 

Destroyed. 

?   Several  Portraits, ^ 

Mr.  Prewitt,  Boonville,  Mo. 


»The  writer  has  examined  the  original  paintings,  and  their  dates  and 
authenticity  were  determined  by  comparisons  of  them,  definite  statements  in 
contemporary  newspapers,  the  dates  of  the  lives  of  persons  represented  in 
portraits  and  information  from  relatives  and  friends  of  those  represented. 

sSame  as  »  except  that  the  writer  has  seen  only  copies  (in  the  form  of 
photographs  or  engravings)  of  the  originals. 

'Information  was  obtained  from  contemporary  publications. 

<Dates  are  on  the  pictures,  and  the  signature  is  on  the  two  genre  subjects. 

•Information  obtained  from  the  relatives  and  friends  of  the  persons  repre- 
sented. 

•Information  based  upon  statements  in  later  publications. 

^Date  inferred  from  the  dating  of  the  finished  portrait. 

'Date  inferred  from  the  dating  of  the  large  painting. 

•Told  of  by  Mr.  Hastings,  an  old  friend  of  Bingham. 
'"Told  of  by  Rollins  Bingham. 
"In  Bingham's  studio  in  1879. 

»2The  writer  has  seen  this,  but  the  painting  is  so  nearly  worn  off  the 
lithograph  that  an  opinion  as  to  the  authenticity  of  the  work  cannot  reasonably 
be  forme  i. 

>»From  the  Piper  Estate. 

''Information  given  by  the  owner  of  the  painting. 
"In  the  Bingham  Estate  Sale,  1893. 


APPENDIX. 


129 


CHRONOLOGICAL  REGISTER  OF  BINGHAM'S  LIFE. 


(Data  in  regard  to  the  painting  of  portraits  and  le  of  the 
genre  works  are  in  general  not  included  here;  they  may  be  found  by 
reference  to  the  chronological  list  of  paintings). 


1811  Mar.  20.    Born — in  Augusta  Co.,  Virginia. 

1819  Family  emigrates  to  Franklin,  Missouri. 

1820  Meets  Chester  Harding. 

1823  Father  dies.    Mother  and  children  move  to  the  farm 

at  Arrow  Rock,  Saline  Co. 


1827  (about) .  Goes  to  Boonville  as  cabinet  maker's  apprentice. 

Studies  law  and  theology.  Meets  Harding 
again  and  receives  first  instructions  in  painting. 

1830  (about) .  Starts  to  St.  Louis,  but  is  forced  to  return  home 


on  account  of  illness. 
1834  In  Columbia,  where  he  first  meets  Maj.  Rollins. 

Paints  portraits. 
1835  (about) .  Goes  to  St.  Louis. 

1836  Feb.  13.    In  St.  Louis. 

1836  Marries  Miss  Hutchison. 

1837  (about) .  Goes  to  Philadelphia  to  study  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  ^ 

1840  Delivers  speech  at  the  Rocheport  Whig  Convention. 

1840-44  In  Washington,  D.  C,  except  for  six  months,  which 

he  spent  in  Petersburg,  Virginia.  Paints  por- 
traits of  statesmen. 

1844  Returns  to  Saline  Co.,  Missouri. 

1845  Registered  in  the  American  Art  Union  from  St.  Louis. 

1845  First  records  of  genre  and  landscape  paintings. 

1846  (by) ....  Has  painted  Jolly  Flatboatmen,  which  is  used  by  the 
American  Art  Union  for  its  annual  engraving. 

1846  Registered  in  the  American  Art  Union  from  St.  Louis. 

1846  June  19.    Is  candidate  for  the  Legislature  from 

Saline  Co. 

1846  Aug.  14.    Elected  to  the  Legislature  by  a  majority 

of  three  votes. 

9 


130  GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 

1846  Nov.  20.    His  opponent,  Sappington,  contests  the 

election. 

1846  Dec.  18.    Case  decided  in  favor  of  Sappington. 

1847  Registered  in  the  American  Art  Union  from  Arrow 

Rock. 

1847  Apr.  21.    Lighter  Relieving  a  Steamboat  Aground  and 

Raftsmen  Playing  Cards  are  on  exhibition  in 
St.  Louis. 

1848  Has  done  more  work  in  genre  painting. 

1848  May   1.    Declines   nomination   of  Representative 

from  Saline  Co.  in  the  Legislature. 

1848  July  7.    Accepts  the  nomination. 

1848  Aug.  11.  Has  been  elected  by  a  majority  of  twenty- 
six  over  Sappington. 

1848  Nov.  29.    Wife  dies  in  Arrow  Rock,  leaving  him  with 

three  children. 

1849  Has  finished  several  new  genre  paintings. 

1849  Feb.  26.    From  the  majority  of  the  Committee  on 

Federal  Relations  in  the  Legislature  he  makes  a 
report  accompanied  by  resolutions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery,  with  feeling  against  secession. 

1849  Aug.    In  New  York.    Has  his  portfolio  of  sketches 

in  his  studio. 

1849  Sept.  28.    In  Columbia  painting  portraits. 

1849  Dec.  2.    Marries  Miss  Thomas  at  Columbia. 

1851  May  23.    In  St.  Louis  (with  his  wife).    On  his  way 

home  from  New  York,  where  he  has  spent  some 
months.  Has  painted  Emigration  of  Daniel 
Boone  in  his  absence. 

1851  Oct.  31.    Has  studio  in  Columbia.    County  Election 

(unfinished),  Candidate  Electioneering,  Chess 
Players  and  Scene  on  the  Ohio  are  in  his  studio. 
Plans  spending  the  winter  in  St.  Louis. 

1852  Jan.  9.    Has  studio  in  St.  Louis,  where  he  is  painting 

portraits.    County  Election  is  not  yet  finished. 
1852  Mar.  19.    Still  in  St.  Louis.    Starts  subscriptions 

for  engravings  of  County  Election. 
1852  Apr.  2.    In  Columbia  with  County  Election. 


APPENDIX. 


131 


1852  June  3.    Leaves  Columbia  for  Baltimore  as  a  delegate 

to  the  Whig  National  Convention. 

1852  Nov.  21.    In  St.  Louis. 

1853  Mar.  25.    In  New  Orleans,  where  he  exhibits  the 

County  Election. 

1853  May  3.    Reaches  Columbia  from  New  Orleans. 

1853  June  24.    Has  lately  been  in  Richmond,  Kentucky. 

1853  Nov.  18.  In  Philadelphia  superintending  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  plate  for  the  engraving  of  County 
Election  and  working  upon  Stump  Speaking, 

1853  Dec.  23.    Still  in  Philadelphia. 

1854  Sept.   15.    Has  just  returned  to  St.   Louis  from 

Philadelphia,  where  he  has  been  a  year. 
1854  Sept.  22.    Has  finished  Stump  Speaking  and  has  it 

in  the  hands  of  an  engraver  in  Paris.  Working 

on  the  Verdict  of  the  People. 
1855  Sept,  14.    Has  a  studio  in  the  Grand  Jury  room  of 

the  courthouse  in  Columbia,  where  he  is  painting 

portraits. 

1855  Nov.  14.    In  Jefferson  City,  where  he  has  a  room  in 

the  Capitol,  painting  portraits. 

1855 .  Dec.  14.    Has  lately  made  a  speech  in  a  Whig  meet- 

ing in  the  Capitol  at  Jefferson  City. 

1856  Mar.  14.    In  Columbia,  painting  Washington  Cross- 

ing the  Delaware  (unfinished  for  eighteen  years). 

1856  May  16.    In  St.  Louis,  exhibiting  Verdict  of  the 

People.    Preparing  to  leave  for  the  East  and 
for  Europe. 
1856  In  Europe. 

1857  Feb.  14.    In  Diisseldorf  working  upon  portraits  of 

Washington  and  Jefferson,  contracted  for  in 
the  summer  of  1856. 

1857 .  Dec.  18.    In  Diisseldorf  working  upon  portraits  of 

Washington  and  Jefferson  and  upon  a  large 
picture  of  Jolly  Flatboatmen. 

1857  The  First  Music  Lesson  is  on  exhibition  in  the 

Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. 

1859  Jan.  28.  Has  reached  Jefferson  City  from  Diissel- 
dorf. 


132  GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 

1859  Jan.  29.    Reaches  Columbia,  where  he  visits  Maj. 

Rollins. 

1859  Feb.  14.    Receives  commission  from  the  Legislature 

to  paint  portraits  of  Jackson  and  Clay. 

1859  Apr.  22.    In  Brunswick,  painting  portraits. 

1859  May  1-7.  Receives  commission  from  the  Mercan- 
tile Library,  St.  Louis,  to  paint  portrait  of 
Baron  von  Humboldt. 

1859  May  13.    Has  left  Columbia  for  Diisseldorf. 

1859  Sept.  9.    Has  returned  with  his  family  from  Dussel- 

dorf ,  and  is  in  Columbia. 

1860  Feb.  24.    Has  returned  to  Columbia  from  Washing- 

ton City. 

1860  Apr.  27.    Portrait  of  Baron  von  Humboldt  has  been 

delivered  to  the  Mercantile  Library. 
1861  Sept.    Son,  Rollins  Bingham,  is  born. 

1861  At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  he  enters^the 

U.  S.  Army  as  a  private. 

1861  In  the  summer  he  is  appointed  Captain  of  the  Irish 

Company  of  Van  Horn's  Battalion  of  U.  S. 
Volunteer  Reserve  Corps. 

1862  Jan.  4.    Appointed  State  Treasurer  and  moves  to 

Jefferson  City  immediately. 

1862  May  16.    Has  exposed  Jennison. 

1863  Aug.  1.    Enters  into  agreement  with  the  Secretary 

of  State  to  paint  an  equestrian  portrait  of  Gen. 
Lyon. 

1864  Jan.  2.    Daughter,  Clara  Bingham,  is  married  to 

Thos.  B.  King. 

1865  Term  of  office  as  State  Treasurer  expires. 

1865  Nov.  24.    Living  in  Independence,  working  upon 

Order  No.  11.  Writes  letter  to  the  Legislature 
explaining  his  contract  to  paint  the  portrait  of 
Gen.  Lyon,  and  sends  a  study  for  it. 

1866  June  1.    Is  candidate  for  Congress  from  the  sixth 

district,  subject  to  the  decision  of  a  conservative 
Convention. 

1866  July  6.    Painting  Maj.  Dean  in  Jail. 


APPENDIX. 


133 


1866  Oct.  6.  Has  been  defeated  in  the  nominating  con- 
vention.   Supports  the  nominee. 

1868  May  28.    Chosen  Elector  at  the  Democratic  State 

Convention. 

1868  Dec.  11,    Order  No.  11  is  being  finished. 

1869  Oct.  1.  Has  been  elected  a  school  director  in  Inde- 
pendence. 

1870  May  6.    Has  sold  his  residence  in  Independence  to 

move  to  Kansas  City,  the  only  place  in  which 
he  owned  a  home  thereafter. 

1870  July  15.    Chas.  P.  Stewart  has  gone  to  Kansas  City 

to  study  and  practice  under  Bingham. 
1870  Sept.  16.    Stewart  returns  to  Columbia. 

1871  May  5.    Has  finished  portrait  of  Gen.  Frank  P.  Blair. 

1872  Oct.  26.    In  Colorado.    Has  just  finished  View  of 

Pike's  Peak. 

1873  Apr.  11.    Full-length  portrait  of  Maj.  James  S. 

Rollins  recently  finished. 

1873  May  2.    In  Texas. 

1873  Sept.  3.    In  Columbia,  making  a  short  visit  with 

Maj.  Rollins,  on  his  way  to  Louisville,  Kentucky. 

1874  Jan.  23.    Has  brought  suit  against  Michel  Dively 

for  permitting  a  gambling  house  to  be  kept  on 
his  premises. 

1874  May  11.    Becomes  president  of  the  Kansas  City 

Board  of  Police  Commissioners. 

1874  July  31.  Has  accepted  a  request  to  become  candi- 
date for  Congress  from  the  eighth  district. 

1874  Aug.  24.    Withdraws  from  the  list  of  candidates  for 

nomination  at  the  Democratic  convention  in 
Kansas  City. 

1874  Dec.  11.    Puzzling  a  Witness  is  almost  finished. 

1875  Jan.    Appointed  Adjutant-General  of  Missouri. 

1875  Jan.  19.    Arrives  in  Jefferson  City  to  begin  work  in 

his  new  office.  Boards  while  there,  leaving  his 
family  in  Kansas  City. 

1875  Feb.  25.    Arrives  in  Jefferson  City  from  Washington. 

1876  Feb.  23.    In  Washington,  looking  after  the  State 

War  Claims. 


134  GEORGE  CALEB  BINGHAM. 

1876  Mar.  4.    In  Washington. 

1876  May  1.    Returns  from  Washington. 

1876  Aug.  29.    Returns  from  Ripley  County,  where  he  had 

gone  to  investigate  a  ku-klux  organization. 

1876  Sept.  14.  In  Boonville,  putting  his  son  in  the  Kem- 
per Family  School. 

1876  Oct.  24.  Granted  leave  of  absence  from  the  Adju- 
tant-General's office  for  an  indefinite  length 
of  time  for  his  health. 

1876  Nov.  3.    His  second  wife  dies  at  Fulton. 

1877  Jan.  19.    Elected  Professor  of  Art  in  the  University 

of  Missouri. 

1877  July  6.    In  Boonville  at  the  residence  of  Mr.  Thos. 

Nelson  engaged  in  painting  portraits. 
1877  Sept.  28.    Has  reached  Columbia  and  is  superin- 
tending the  arrangement  of  his  rooms  in  the 
Normal  Building. 

.  1878  Mar.  29.    In  Washington.    Has  lately  published  an 

attack  upon  Gen.  Ewing,  to  which  Maj.  Edr- 
wards  replies. 

1878  May  3.    Visits  in  Columbia.    Will  soon  leave  for 

Texas  to  visit  his  daughter. 

1878  May  31.    Has  returned  to  Columbia  from  Texas 

improved  in  health. 

1878  June  18.    Marries  Mrs.  Mattie  Lykins.    Goes  to 

Denver,  Colorado,  for  a  few  weeks.  '  - 

1878  Nov.  8.  Has  been  appointed  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners to  select  a  design  for  the  Lee  Monument 
in  Virginia;  the  committee  is  to  meet  in  Rich- 
mond, Nov.  27th. 

1878  Dec.  6.    Returns  from  Richmond,  Virginia,  and 

Washington,  D.  C.  (with  his  wife).  They  have 
rooms  in  Stephens  College. 

1879   Feb.  28.    Suffers  a  dangerous  attack  of  pneumonia 

at  his  rooms  in  Stephens  College. 

1879  Mar.  1.    Maj.  Rollins  delivers  Bingham's  address 

upon  Art  in  the  University. 

1879  June  13.    Publishes  a  bitter  attack  upon  Order  No. 

11. 


APPENDIX. 


135 


1879  June  17.    Ex-Governor  B.  Gratz  Brown  replies  to 

Bingham's  attack. 
1879  July  5.    Leaves  Columbia  for  Kansas  City  in  his 

usual  health. 
1879  July  7.    Dies  in  Kansas  City. 

1879  July  9.    Funeral  held  at  his  home  in  the  Lykins 

Institute  in  Kansas  City  and  burial  in  the 
Union  Cemetery. 


V 


/  i        r"^  •*-7 


GETTY  ^^^^^j^llll^^^^^ 


